Setting your messages to “Auto-delete” is great because it kills two birds with one stone: your various apps and social networks are not clogged with conversations that no longer matter, and you no longer have to worry about privacy concerns that come with your messages lying around forever. I particularly like Telegram’s new approach to automatically deleting old messages: the app can now automatically delete entire conversations for both parties. Sorry folks browsing old chats to catch you with something you said months ago.
Make sure you have updated to the latest version of Telegram for to get started with this always useful feature Android or iOSThen start the app and start a conversation. On Android, tap the three-dot icon and select “Clear History” and choose your duration.
On iOS, long press on a group chat message. You will see an option to select this message. Tap it, then tap Delete Chat in the top left corner. You will then receive this prompt:
Tap on Enable auto-delete and you can choose whether messages in the chat should disappear for all members after a day or a week.
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Whatever you choose, on whatever platform, your group chat will automatically notify everyone that messages will now be automatically deleted. Be prepared for the following onslaught of answers.
That’s it. I recommend turning this on because honestly, how often do you ever go back and look at old messages? If you think you need to fall back on something, you can always take a screenshot before the message appears.
How to create time-limited Telegram invitation links
Speaking of data protection: Telegram’s update also adds new expiring invitations to the mix. This feature allows you to send invitations to your various groups and channels without worrying about these links so that anyone who finds them can access your chats forever.
To get started (at least on iOS), go to a group or channel, tap its icon in the top right corner, and tap Add members. Tap on Invite to the group via linkand then tap Manage invitation links. Tap on Create a new linkand you can then limit how often users use this link by a period of time (an hour to a week), an expiration date, or a number of users (and uses).
While I’d love if the feature had the option to kick people out after a period of inactivity (similar to Discord’s temporary invites to servers), Telegram’s updates still provide an incredibly useful means of managing your larger chats.
