a software developer who worked with Telegram in its early days; current position unknown, probably works on the API if still at Telegram

a JavaScript Telegram API client; a modified version of it is used in Web A github.com/gram-js/gramjs

a native library for interacting with group calls that is lightweight compared to tgcalls and provides static builds with C interfaces github.com/pytgcalls/ntgcalls

an unmaintained Python library for interacting with group calls authored by the same person who created Telegram Crawler; not to be confused with py-tgcalls github.com/MarshalX/tgcalls

based on ntgcalls, a Python library for interacting with group calls; formerly based on tgcallsjs; not to be confused with pytgcalls github.com/pytgcalls/pytgcalls

an unmaintained JavaScript library for interacting with group calls that was built from parts of telegram-react github.com/tgcallsjs/tgcalls

the former name of group calls from Dec 2020 until Jun 2021 when video support was added to them

another name for group calls

(also video chat, formerly voice chat) a type of call that can be created within channels or groups, can have an unlimited number of listeners, and up to 10 simultaneous speakers

a video and audio broadcast that can be started by channel or group owners and can have an unlimited number of audience; channel or group owners stream their video and audio to Telegram over RTMP while the audience consume it over TCP

a type of call between multiple users that was upgraded from a peer-to-peer call; full name end-to-end encrypted conference call

a type of call that is made between two users and can be upgraded to a conference call

based on WebRTC, the library used by Telegram apps with the exception of the web ones to facilitate calls github.com/TelegramMessenger/tgcalls

A web-based client for Telegram based on TDLib that was worked on by Evgeny Nadymov from 2019 up to late 2021, when it was abandoned in favor of the new official clients Web K and Web A. github.com/evgeny-nadymov/telegram-react

(like @tdhbcfiles) a channel that was used internally by Unigram to distribute updates and other files required for its functionality; Base64 encoding of pagliaccio_di_ghiaccio (English: ice clown)

In a Lex Fridman podcast released on September 30, 2025, Pavel Durov talked about an assasination attempt on him in spring 2018 which later appeared to be poisoning.

author and maintainer of Web A who is also allegedly working on MyTonWallet, a TON-centered cryptocurrency wallet app

author and main maintainer of Web K

a major contributor to Telegram Desktop; unknown whether a Telegram employee or not

(born 1983) full name Elies Campo i Cid; Catalan business person; business developer at WhatsApp (2013-14) then Telegram (2015-21). In 2025, he was interviewed as part of a documentary where he spoke out against Telegram.

In July 9, 2025, after translation capabilities were down for two weeks, they gradually started to come back, but they were soon noticed to be taking advantage of an LLM probably with a malformed initial prompt that failed to translate specific messages and instead responded to the questions they contained.

(born 2010) a son of Pavel Durov whose mother is Daria Bondarenko

(born 2009) a daughter of Pavel Durov whose mother is Daria Bondarenko

a Telegram employee whose official position is unknown but known for internal testing and handling bug reports

Also spelt as fanstat and might be called telelog, a bot that provides on-demand access to archives of information (incl. deleted) on Telegram users and chats in exchange for money.

a special channel used internally by Telegram Desktop to distribute updates and download other files required for its functionality

An internal grouping of messages. Each user has a message box for its private chats and the basic groups they are a member of. Each channel or supergroup has its own message box.

It has been proven that each message box will have only its last one million messages visible. Despite the Telegram claim that this issue was addressed a long time ago, it is still noticed.

Also known as Misha Babich, a son of Vasiliy Babich who is known for creating an artwork called "Sea turtle heading for the sunrise" that was later put on auction and received a bid from Pavel Durov.

Also spelt as Marina Babych, the wife of Vasiliy Babich, with whom she has 4 kids.

a former Telegram press secretary, and probably a close friend of Pavel Durov

Previously known as /dev/null, a software developer who has worked on both Roxman's project Major and pyrouser's project GladOS. They also presumably have direct communication channels with Telegram developers.

On May 15, 2025, the announcement post of a Telegram contest gained a lot of dislikes, and in turn, Telegram first disabled dislikes just to re-enable them later, and make each new dislike automatically assign two likes. This was suspected to be a response to the fact that the high number of dislikes could be from bot farms.

Created by pyrouser, a join raid protection bot. Its development was done by the same people who developed crypto projects for Roxman.

In the first quarter of 2025, a conflict erupted between pyrouser and Aryn, leading to pyrouser doxxing personal information of Aryn, sending personal threats, and a failed plan of his arrest. The escalations were suspected to be because of Aryn's criticism of his project GladOS.

Also known as Mark, or by his supposedly real name Aleksandr Vykhodets, a Moldovan racketeer who is known for raiding channels using his bot farms so that their owners would pay for his raid protection bot GladOS. He also publicly targets individuals with unfavorable opinions as seen in his assault on Aryn. Some suspect that they could have green lights from Pavel Durov due to the unintelligibly fast spam rate of his bot farms without getting limited by Telegram Anti-Spam.

the username of an account owned by Roxman, which might sometimes be used to refer to him

The former legal CEO of Telegraph LLC. He used to work at VK before that. He could still be working at Telegram, but his current position is unknown.

the name of a former legal entity of Telegram that used to be registered in the Russian Federation (Russian: ООО “Телеграф”)

the phone number of a former account of Pavel Durov

a Telegram front-end developer who resides in the United States and went to the same university as Pavel Durov; creator of Telegram's app for Windows Phone; probably contracting for xAI, a company owned by Elon Musk, to develop a messaging app called X Chat

A Chechen crypto entrepreneur who is originally from Dagestan but probably resides in Western Europe now. Pavel Durov has praised him and his projects in his channel at least twice. They own a Telegram account with an ID of 25, which is suspected to have been bought from its original owner, who was of Uzbek descent.

mostly used by Indian communities: to make a redistribution of someone’s (Telegram-related) project, removing references to its original authors

(born 2 Aug 2000) full name Vavilova Yuliya Malets; supposed title "crypto couch"; Pavel Durov's girlfriend. She was also his travel companion in 2024 all the way from Central Asia to Azerbaijan, up until his arrest in France.

On Sunday, 25th August, 2024 around 18:00 UTC, Pavel Durov was arrested in the capital of France at the Paris-Le Bourget Airport.

an airport in Paris where Pavel Durov was arrested in 2024

Telegram's mascot created by Pavel Durov in light of the Russian Governments censorship of VK and Telegram. It can also symbolize the right to freedom and privacy.

the official Telegram app for iOS worked on by Ilya Laktyushin, Ali Fareed, and others

the official Telegram app for Android currently being worked on by Dmytro Karaush

a multi-platform desktop client created by John Preston that supports Windows, macOS and Linux

a special reaction that can be used to support channel authors by sending them Telegram Stars

displays the authors profile picture and name on channel posts, similar to group chats

Also known as Vasya Babich, the creator of the multi-platform Telegram Desktop client. He still actively works on this client at Telegram.

head of the Russian branch of TSF

(born Sep 2017) a son of Pavel Durov whose mother is Irina Bolgar

(born Jan 2016) a son of Pavel Durov whose mother is Irina Bolgar

(born Dec 2013) a daughter of Pavel Durov whose mother is Irina Bolgar

an ex-wife of Pavel Durov

a Russian girl who is a head of TSF, once used to have a relationship with Pavel Durov after they met in university, and has two children with him

a domain name owned by Telegram that proxies TON sites (Web 3) to Web 2

the former username of an account owned by Pavel Durov

an official Telegram channel that publishes daily reports on combatting child abuse @stopCA

A now deprecated version of the EU Regulation Bot.

Official Telegram bot for advice and updates on EU regulation issues. It allows you to request a copy of your data in Telegram. @EURegulation

Creative Director at Telegram. Most likely in control of the design language of Telegram, and is the main artist for Telegram's blog post artwork.

A third-party client with many features, such as a panic code, displaying a users DC & ID, directly deleting your account in-app, and much more.

A third-party Telegram client for Android and iOS that consists of many features, for instance: increasing the speed of downloading/uploading files, translating a chat completely without the need for a Telegram Premium subscription, a crypto wallet, locking chats, and much more.

A Telegram Premium exclusive feature which allows users who are subscribed to Premium to send stickers that contain interactive effects, similar to Interactive Emoji.

A feature in Telegram which allows you to separate a group chat into multiple individual chats, called Topics. You can assign a name and emoji to these Topics.

A platform for creating quiz-like questions, which can be shared in Telegram using Quiz Bot. quiz.directory

A now outdated bot which was dedicated to creating a comment button under posts. If you wanted to use the bot, you could add the bot to a channel as an administrator and follow the instructions it gave you. @discussbot

Telegram's representative, and one of the members behind PressBot. Some claim they are an unreal person.

An official bot that allows you to create quizzes, add media files and text to questions, in addition to setting time limits. After passing the quiz, you can share it to a group, or invite users to individually answer questions in a chat via a bot. @QuizBot

A bot created by Smart Glocal in collaboration with Telegram for content monetization through subscriptions and donations. Previously, this was handled by the official bot @donate that announced its closure in late January 2024. @tribute

bot that sends notifications regarding new bids on Fragment. @fragment

An official bot dedicated to helping you determine if your account has been restricted, and explaining the reasons behind the restriction, and providing instructions on how to restore full access to functionality. @SpamBot

An official bot which accepts submission entires for Telegram Contests.

An official bot which receives Telegram UI mockups / designs. @design_bot

An official bot which helps you verify a Telegram channel, public group, or bot given that you have a verified account on at least two of the following services: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, VK, Snapchat. More recently, you must also provide the links to 2 public press articles which mention you or your brand. @VerifyBot

An official bot that helps you claim an acquired username for your personal account, public group, or channel on Telegram. In order to do this, you need to have the same username in at least two out of three social networks: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. @username_bot

An official bot responsible for submitting your application for a job at Telegram.

Anonymous phone numbers always start with +888. They function similar to NFTs. They can be used exclusively to register or log in to Telegram accounts and are tradable on the Fragment platform, which also handles how you receive login codes on these numbers.

A bot used for enquiries regarding Telegram and its operations.

An official support account used by bot developers to contact and resolve issues, related with Telegram Bot development.

A bot dedicated to testing the Telegram Mini Apps platform, Telegram payments platform, and, more recently, Telegram Stars.

Used to manage your TON balance and other currencies.

An account dedicated to review TSF submissions.

A sticker pack created by Durov. The sticker pack mostly consists of different images of what is assumed to be Pavel's dog.

A well known channel which posts Telegram Premium subscription giveaways, often in quick successions.

An OSINT bot that provided public information regarding people, including their accounts on social media apps such as Telegram.

In app support, located in Settings > Ask a Question.

another name for Andrei Iakovenko

A popular Telegram channel created from the controversy between Anton Rozenberg and Pavel Durov. It is well known for being the first to deliver leaked information exclusive to the channel.

The Instant View platform enables Telegram users to preview websites directly inside Telegram, at exceptionally fast speeds.

⚽️ 🏀 🎲 🎯 🎳 🎰 Have interactive animations with random outcomes. For instance, if you will send a single 🎲 emoji, it will show you and all group members an animation with a random outcome at the end.

Emojis that show an interactive and immersive animation designed by Telegram when tapping on them in private chats.

High quality, animated versions of Apple's proprietary emojis made by Telegram's designers, but was removed by Apple due to it violating their terms of service.

A set of rules laid out by Telegram to regulate and moderate the platform. It maintains the platform and is the fundamental structure for its rules and regulations. Violating these terms, or using a third party Telegram app that also goes against these terms, may result in your Telegram account getting banned.

An abbreviation of Terms of Service.

The developer of the official Telegram for macOS client. Started the project as an unofficial client, until he was hired by Telegram to work on it.

the founder of Telegram Info, and a photography director behind Durov (2021)

A documentary on the life of Pavel Durov, in which several people close to Durov were interviewed as part of the documentary. Some of these people include Ilya Perekopsky and John Hyman.

a software developer working at Telegram

another name for Artem Kolnogorov

A Russian software developer working on Telegram, probably on the front ends. He is the one behind the Instant View Platform, telegra.ph, telesco.pe, and potentially the front ends of other Telegram platforms like Fragment.

Giveaways involve distributing Telegram Premium subscriptions in channels and groups. You can set the number and duration of subscriptions, and specify the included groups/channels and countries. These can be purchased via the app, Fragment and Premium Bot. Each Premium subscription given provides the channel/group with three boosts. You can also add additional custom gifts, for instance an iPhone.

another name for Dmytro Tarasenko

a Ukrainian software developer who used to work on Telegram X

A system for reliably sending Telegram verification codes to users from certain countries, while reducing costs on Telegram. This works by sending SMS from a user’s phone to another user’s. In exchange to that, users receive Telegram Premium gift links. telegram.org/tos/p2pl

a legacy web-based Telegram client that is now replaced by Web K and Web A web.telegram.org/?legacy=1

based on Webogram, a web-based Telegram client built as a result of the 2019-2020 JavaScript contests; was later officialized along with its competitor Web A web.telegram.org/k

The previous name of Web A. The "Z" at the end was based on the last name of its developer, Aleksandr Zinchuk. It is thought that the discard of this name was because of relation to the Russian military's Z symbol, considering that it was done when there was a war between Russia and Ukraine at that time.

(formerly Web Z) a web-based Telegram client built as a result of the 2019-2020 JavaScript contests; later officialized along with its competitor Web K web.telegram.org/a

a sticker designer working at Telegram, author of the famous duck sticker pack

Colloquial term for people who work at Telegram as a part of its development team.

a developer working on Telegram’s iOS app

another name for Ilya Samorodov

a now private, publicly discovered internal Telegram group which was/is dedicated for the private testing of new Telegram features by Telegram developers and employees

A new mechanism developed by Telegram that enables a group or channel to unlock additional functionality when a user provides it with boosts.

a feature which allows you to gift one or multiple users a Telegram Premium subscription

an official bot that allows you to create or manage sticker packs, custom emoji packs, and more @stickers

Organise animated, video or static Custom Emoji in a pack with the same abilities as a sticker pack Also created using Telegram's official Stickers Bot.

is used to organise stickers in one place, which can be assigned a unique link and name using Telegram's official Stickers Bot

a file format created by Telegram that stores Sticker, Emoji and Custom Emoji, max file size is 64KB core.telegram.org/stickers

images / media in the .TGS file format which can be organised into a sticker pack, and used in a variety of chats to expression emotions that simply can't be conveyed in a text message

an official Android client made by Telegram in order to bypass the restraints of app stores such as Google Play and the Apple App Store, supposedly gets faster updates and is installed directly as an APK

An official bot made by Telegram that allows you to purchase a Telegram Premium subscription without the need of an app store. Often used when purchasing a subscription through the Telegram Direct Android client. It can also be used to control the payments of premium gifts, giveaways and Telegram Stars.

an official bot made by Telegram that enables you to receive emails directly inside Telegram

Popular Telegram concept designer and the creator of the official Telegram icon pack.

an early, pre-release build of an official Telegram client which may contain bugs. Intended to be tested by Telegram users and TSF.

A popular Telegram News and updates channel created by iDubno.

a chat with yourself containing additional features, such as organised categories in list view, and tags, a Telegram Premium feature

Removed in early September 2024, a feature which allowed you to see other users and groups that were near your physical location, and vice-versa when you made yourself visible to others.

an individual with a registered Telegram account

Telegram's discovery system for finding channels, users, bots or messages.

a tool for broadcasting messages or news to a large audience

allows you, your channel, group or bot to be discovered by anyone on Telegram, either via Global Search or a t.me link

Custom Emojis are either animated, video or static compressed stickers which can be added to messages and used in various other features, such as Emoji Status. Often organised into a custom emoji pack.

A former type of group which used to be based on a set location. These types of groups were most commonly discovered using the People Nearby feature.

A type of group which only supports up to 200 members, and harbours basic features such as sending and replying to messages. Pinned messages, public usernames and other features are supported when a basic group is upgraded to a supergroup.

Also known as a Broadcast Group, a gigagroup is a type of chat which supports up to 500K members. Only administrators of a gigagroup are allowed to send messages.

A semi-official Telegram client made and optimised for Windows 10 and 11, built using the UWP framework. Created by Fela.

A type of a group that can have up to 200K members, and has exclusive features such as public usernames and chat history. It is often created when upgrading from a basic group.

often confused with the username feature, a profile name on Telegram is your real name or nickname which will always be displayed next to your profile picture.

a Telegram Premium feature that lets you display a Custom Emoji next to your profile name.

Secret Chats are separate, end-to-end encrypted chats which provide an additional layer of security, yet with the sacrifice of features in comparison to cloud chats.

Chats that are synced with the cloud and are accessible from all of your devices. They use standard client-server encryption, making them less secure but letting them have more features in contrast to Secret Chats.

three sets of entirely separate and sandboxed servers which are dedicated for the testing of new features

a Telegram employee who helps out with the TSF, and has made some of the posts for Telegram's Twitter account

Creator of popular Telegram leaks and updates channel @adurovleaks. Once leaked an Alpha build of Telegram for iOS on his channel, which subsequently caused the Alpha be revoked. They are also an admin of durovleaks.

Telegram Mini Apps are a web-based platform where developers can build bots that offer more interactive experiences.

a platform where users can browse Telegram-related definitions and learn newfound information

an official platform created by Telegram dedicated to reporting bugs from official clients, as well as suggesting features / ideas

The name of the legal entity behind Fragment which is registered in the Eastern African republic of Seychelles. Telegram claims that they are not related with them, but according to a tweet made by Pavel Durov it was they who made it.

a community project that tracks changes made to Telegram’s apps and websites @tgcrawl

Vasiliy Babich’s nickname

The name of a team from St. Petersburg State University that participated in ACM ICPC in 2010 and 2011 and won several gold and silver medals. Aliaksei Levin and Arseniy Smirnov were members of it.

a PHP to C++ compiler that was originally developed in VK, but another version of it is also allegedly still being used by Telegram

An ex-Telegram employee, and semi childhood friend of Nikolay Durov. Went from close bonds with Nikolay to enemies. Was fired most likely due to a conflict with Nikolay. The full story can be read here.

(born 21 Nov 1980) full name Durov Nikolay Valer'yevich; Russian mathematician, bigger brother of Pavel Durov, the author of MTProto

a bot feature that lets authorize users with real-life IDs

a designer who works on the Android app at Telegram

an official bot that lets users create bot accounts with it @BotFather

a special Telegram account that is created via BotFather and can be seamlessly automated by levaraging Bot API

one or more buttons attached to a message by a bot core.telegram.org/bots/features-keyboards

an interaction that is made with a bot right within the message field from any chat core.telegram.org/bots/features-requests

Any software that talks to the Telegram API. This can be an official Telegram app, or even a daemon that runs bots.

Short for “Data Center.” Used commonly as a prefix when identifying Telegram’s data centers (e.g., DC1, DC2).

an online portal where users can translate official Telegram apps into other languages, or even create their own, customized translation packs translations.telegram.org

an automated user account that processes @admin mentions in Telegram’s official public chats like @PublicTestGroup

An official alternative Telegram client for Android that uses TDLib under the hood. Telegram X used to be two different apps developed as a result of internal competitions, an Android one, and an iOS one, but the iOS one was then promoted to replace the main app.

a third-party Telegram client for iOS based on the sources of the official one developed by the same person who started Nicegram @swiftgram

A third-party Telegram client for iOS and Android based on official apps. It originally used to be only an iOS app developed by the individual developer Sergey Akentev, but then got acquired by Appvillis. The original developer, Sergey Akentev, has since moved to developing Swiftgram. @nicegramapp

a Bot API framework for TypeScript and JavaScript that is used in Telegram’s official bot tutorial grammy.dev

a popular Python library used to write Telegram clients, which is unmaintained these days pyrogram.org

A private version of an official Telegram app that is accessible by a smaller set of users, mainly the TSF. Also sometimes referred to as Alpha.

An optional paid subscription plan for Telegram users to unlock additional functionalities and increase limits. Users can also Gift Premium to other users.

a set of features included in Telegram Premium intended for use by businesses

Telegram’s in-app currency used for purchasing digital goods and services

• telegra.ph, a microblogging platform created by Telegram • Telegraph Inc.—a legal entity registered by Telegram • the name of the former Russian legal entity of Telegram

an American entrepreneur who used to work at Telegram in its early days, and probably helped Telegram rent servers in Buffalo, U.S.

a Russian software developer who used to work at Telegram in its early days

Telegram’s financial adviser

a Russian software developer working at Telegram

(born 10 Oct 1984) full name Durov Pavel Valer'yevich; founder and ex-CEO of VKontakte (2006-14); founder and CEO of Telegram (2013-)

A general topic group, mostly concentrated of Telegram Community members who either enjoy discussing Telegram, or enjoy talking off topic, which additionally includes famous Telegram Developers such as Fela. Most Telegram Beta updates are discussed here.

an HTTP API for building Telegram bots core.telegram.org/bots/api

a Russian software developer working on Telegram’s API (back end)

competitions held by Telegram from time to time for creative developers and designers @contest

a Russian developer who used to work on Telegram’s Android app

a Ukrainian developer who works on Telegram's Android app

Also known as DrKLO, a Russian software developer who created a Telegram app for Android in a contest, which was then made the official Telegram Android app. He continued working on it until 2021.

abbreviation of The Open Network (previously Telegram Open Network), a decentralized computer network that hosts TON Blockchain

the official platform that connects Telegram with the TON Blockchain fragment.com

a developer working on Telegram’s iOS app

an ex-Telegram developer who used to work on Telegram calls before they were migrated to WebRTC

abbreviation of Mobile Transport Protocol, a transport protocol used by the Telegram API core.telegram.org/mtproto

vice president of Telegram

Telegram’s vice president of communications, head of TSF, and probably an organizer of Telegram Contests

an Italian software developer who works on to Telegram API’s documentation

abbreviation of Telegram Support Force

an Italian software developer who built Unigram, a third-party Telegram client for Windows that was later officialized

a volunteer-powered initiative intended to help Telegram stay grounded to its community, and to be able to move forward and provide support for its users

another name for Aliaksei Levin, derived from their Telegram username

A multilingual project that delivers high-quality informational updates regarding Telegram. @tginfo

The "Telegram Community" refers to a group of people who are passionate and enthusiastic about Telegram, and stay involved with the latest updates and news regarding the platform.

a cross-platform library for creating Telegram clients core.telegram.org/tdlib

The British creator of the popular Telegram News updates channel iDubTG. Discovered the Telegram Community via Telegram Beta Chat. Often dabbles in other things, such as a cup of tea.

a Belorussian software developer working at Telegram, ACM champion, the developer behind TDLib and Bot API