Short answer: A Telegram Community links several groups, channels and bots around one shared topic. Members of the community can see its other chats and join them instantly, without a separate invite link for each. Telegram launched the feature on 14 July 2026. Each chat can be visible to all members or hidden, and the whole community can sit in your chat list as one expandable entry.
Until this update, an admin who ran a channel, a discussion group, a side chat for buyers and a support bot had to tie them together by hand: links in the channel description, pinned messages, a list of invite links that went stale. Communities give that structure a home inside Telegram itself. Instead of asking people to hunt for your other chats, you link them once and let members move between them.
This guide sticks to what Telegram has officially announced: what a community is, how visibility and chat-list display work, who can add chats, and what changed for bots. Then it looks at how to plan a community around a project you already run, and where growth services fit in.
What Telegram announced on 14 July 2026
Communities arrived in the same Telegram update as the new rich text editor, bot replies that only one person can see, and a much larger GIF library. Telegram’s blog describes the feature in a few lines, and its feature timeline sums it up as several channels, groups and bots linked together in one Telegram Community.
The announcement covers five points:
- Linked chats: several groups, channels and bots can be linked into one community around a shared topic.
- Joining without invite links: community members can see the other chats and join them instantly.
- Visibility per chat: each chat is either Visible to all community members or Hidden.
- Chat-list display: you choose whether the community shows as separate chats or as one chat that expands when you open it.
- Collaborative by default: any member can add more chats unless this is restricted in settings, in which case added chats appear as suggestions.
Telegram has not published a detailed help page for Communities yet, so the exact screens and steps may differ between apps and versions. If you do not see the option, update Telegram and look in the settings of the group or channel you want to use as a starting point.
How joining works without invite links
The core idea is simple: once someone is in your community, the rest of your chats are one tap away. They no longer need a link that you posted months ago, and you no longer need to repeat the same list of links in every description.
That matters most for projects with several chats. A typical setup might look like this:
| Chat | Role in the community |
|---|---|
| Main channel | Announcements, news and the content people follow you for |
| Discussion group | Questions, feedback and everyday conversation |
| Topic or regional groups | Smaller chats for a language, city or sub-topic |
| Bot | Orders, sign-ups, support or automated tools |
| Hidden chat | A moderators’ or VIP room only its members can see |
If you are still deciding which format a chat should take, our channel vs group guide explains the difference. A community does not replace that choice; it connects the chats you already chose.
Visible and hidden chats
Each chat in a community has its own visibility setting. A Visible chat can be seen by every community member, who can then join it. A Hidden chat is shown only to community admins and to people who are already members of that chat. Everyone else does not see it in the community at all.
Hidden chats are useful for spaces that belong to the project but should not be open to everyone:
- a moderators’ or staff chat that sits next to the public group;
- a group for paying customers or event attendees;
- a beta testers’ chat for a bot or product;
- a private archive or planning group for the admin team.
Because hidden chats stay invisible to non-members, you can keep the whole project in one structure without exposing every room. Add people to a hidden chat the way you normally would; the community simply keeps it organised alongside the rest.
One expandable entry in the chat list
Telegram says communities save space in the chat list. You can show a community as separate chats or as a single chat that expands when you open it. For members who follow several of your groups and channels, the collapsed view means one entry instead of five, which makes your project easier to find and less likely to be archived as clutter.
Who can add chats to a community
Communities are collaborative by default: any member can add more chats. That fits fan communities and open-source projects where members run their own regional or topic groups. For brands, shops and paid communities, open adding is usually not what you want, so Telegram lets you restrict it in settings.
When adding chats is limited, the chats members add show up as suggestions instead. That gives the project a review step: you see what members want to link and decide what actually becomes part of the community. Telegram suggests restricting this before many chats get added, so decide on your policy early.
What changed for bots
Bots can be part of a community just like groups and channels. On the developer side, Bot API 10.2, released on 14 July 2026, introduced initial support for Communities. Bots can now read which community a chat belongs to through a new community field in the chat’s full information, and they receive service messages when a chat is added to or removed from a community.
For a project that runs a support, order or welcome bot, this means the bot can react to changes in the community, for example by updating a menu or notifying admins.
How to plan a community for your project
A community is only as useful as the chats inside it. Before linking everything you have, plan the structure:
- Pick the hub. Decide which chat most new people will join first, usually your main channel or main group. That is where your growth efforts should focus.
- Link only active chats. An empty side group makes the whole community look quiet. Archive or merge chats that no one uses.
- Set visibility on purpose. Keep staff, customer and test chats hidden; make the chats you want people to discover visible.
- Choose an adding policy. Leave adding open for fan projects; restrict it for brands so new chats come in as suggestions.
- Tell members. Pin a short post explaining what each chat is for, so people join the right one.
Growing the chats inside a community
Communities help people who are already with you discover your other chats. They do not bring new people from outside on their own. The usual growth work still applies to the hub chat, and some of the community’s strength comes from each chat looking active when a member opens it.
- Members: a larger hub gives the community more people to pass on to the other chats. Telegram members packages can help a new channel or group get past the empty start.
- Boosts: nothing in the announcement says boosts are shared across a community, so plan levels per chat. Each channel and group needs its own Telegram boost plan.
- Activity: views on channel posts and comments or reactions in groups make a newly linked chat feel alive rather than abandoned.
For organic ideas that work alongside paid services, read how to get more Telegram members. Remember that no service can guarantee search rankings or a verified badge; treat any package as support for real content, not a replacement for it.
What Telegram has not announced yet
The official announcement is short, and several practical questions are not covered there: who exactly can create a community, limits on how many chats it can hold, the exact steps in each app, and how communities interact with features such as folders or topics. We will update this guide when Telegram publishes more details. Until then, check the settings in your own app, and be cautious with third-party claims that are not backed by Telegram.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Telegram Community?
A Community is a set of Telegram groups, channels and bots linked together around a shared topic. Members of the community can see its other chats and join them directly, without needing a separate invite link for each one.
When did Telegram launch Communities?
Telegram announced Communities on 14 July 2026, in the same update that brought the rich text editor and bot messages visible to only one person. The Bot API added initial Communities support in version 10.2 on the same day.
Can a chat in a community be hidden?
Yes. Each chat can be Visible to all community members or Hidden. A hidden chat can only be seen by community admins and by people who are already members of that chat.
Can any member add chats to a community?
By default, yes. Telegram describes communities as collaborative, so any member can add more chats. This can be restricted in the community settings, and when adding is limited, new chats show up as suggestions instead.
Does a community replace growing each chat?
No. A community makes it easier for existing members to find your other chats, but each group, channel and bot still needs its own content, activity and audience. Growth work on your main chat still matters.