Sometimes you need to summon 3+ people in a group chat for a discussion. I’ve been using Telegram since it’s launch in 2013 and since then I have accumulated over 600 group chats. Most of those were added while working on Tonkeeper in the past 2.5 years. When people use group chats incorrectly, we all suffer from the consequences.

Here’s how to use group chats:

1. Make everyone an admin. This will allow others invite more people, change picture and settings later without bothering you.

2. While making everyone an admin, do not check “remain anonymous”. The person won’t be able to untick it themselves ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

3. Immediately turn off “history hidden from new members”. This will bite you when more people are coming in and miss out on important bits of information. In my practice keeping history secret was useful in grand total of three group chats in the past 2 years.

This advice works for 99% of family- and work-related chats. Of course, if you are starting a large community, or discuss something extra-sensistive, you’d pay extra attention to the settings and tune them to your situation.

PS. I wish Telegram added a quick toggle for that behavior somewhere on the chat setup screen.