Since its birth in 2013, the instant messaging app, Telegram, has focused on giving the highest priority to the security of communications. This is one of the main differences that Pavel Durov’s service has with its rival in the market, WhatsApp.
In general, cybersecurity experts recommend not providing too much personal information or sensitive data about us on networks or on the Internet. One of the great advantages of Telegram with respect to WhatsApp or other similar apps, is that we do not need to give anyone our phone number to add us. All you have to do is create a public username and a link to share and have them added to us. This link is called t.me and keep reading because we are going to tell you everything about it.
Create a username
When you create your public username in Telegram you allow other users to find you through it. In this way you will appear in the global results contact search. Before creating yours, keep in mind that anyone can send you a message if they find you and open a chat with you.
To create a username in Telegram the steps to follow are the following:
- Open the Telegram application on your computer or on your phone.
- Click on the gear icon to access the application settings.
- Then, click on “Edit” to proceed to edit your profile.
- You will enter a new menu where you must choose the option «Username0».
- When you click on it, you only have the name you want, but it must contain lowercase letters from “a” to “z” or numbers from 0 to 9 and a minimum length of five characters. Symbols, except underscores, are not allowed.
- When you have your name to your liking, press “Done” to save it.
- Now you will see that it is already reflected in your profile with an @ in front.
What is t.me and how to use it
T.me is a functionality thanks to which you can create short links with your username. These links, when clicked, automatically open a conversation in a chat with the user in question and in this case, since you are the one who shares it, with you. To create a short link t.me the steps you must follow are the following:
- Type t.me/ followed by your username . For example, if your username is ADSLZone, your link would be t.me/ADSLZone.
- You can share the username link with whoever you want, send it through messaging applications, write it on your business cards, social media profiles or put it on your website.
Without a doubt, this is the best way to be able to have communication in Telegram without anyone knowing your number, but be careful, because there are some settings that you must take into account to protect your privacy completely.
How to prevent others from seeing my phone number
If someone finds you with the username, writes you and you reply, they will not know your phone number unless you have it allowed in the privacy settings. This is something that is predetermined by default so that it is not shown except to your contacts (the ones you have added in your agenda), but you run the risk that at some point you have accidentally activated it and your privacy is exposed.
To check it and if necessary, correct it, follow these steps:
- Open the Telegram app on your mobile phone or on your computer.
- Then, click on the gear icon to access the menu with all the settings.
- Among the available options you must choose “Privacy”.
- Now choose the option “Phone number” and you will see three options: everyone, my contacts and nobody.
- If you choose the first option, anyone who finds you by username will be able to see your phone number. If you choose “My contacts”, only those people whom you have previously added to the service will be able to see it. Finally, if you choose “Nobody”, absolutely no user will have access to your phone.
Logically the safest option, if we want to protect ourselves without overdoing it, is “My contacts”.
Select exceptions to share your number with
But this is not the end. You also have the ability to add exceptions. This means that if you choose “Share with my contacts” you can manually select those that, for whatever reason you consider, you do not want to be able to see your phone number. To do this:
- Open the Telegram app on your mobile phone or on your computer.
- Then, click on the gear icon to access the menu with all the settings.
- Among the available options choose “Privacy”.
- Now select the option «Phone number».
- In “Exceptions” click on “Do not share with” and Add Users. A list with all your contacts will open.
- Manually select those with whom you do not want to share your number and press “Done to save”
You can reverse this procedure at any time if you want someone you have selected to see your number. To do so, follow the previous steps and in the “Do not share” tab, click edit. Now you just have to click on the contact you want and choose «delete».
The exceptions are also the other way around, that is, if you had selected the option “Do not share with anyone” in the first step, you can select some contacts who can see it. Doing so is just as easy as the opposite option:
- Open the Telegram app on your mobile phone of whatever operating system or on your computer.
- Now click on the gear icon to access the menu with all the settings.
- Among the available options choose “Privacy”.
- Now select the option «Phone number».
- In “Exceptions” click on “Share with” and Add Users. You will automatically see a list of all your contacts open on the screen.
- Manually select those with whom you want to share your phone number and press “Done to save”.
