How to Turn off Contact Joined Notifications on Telegram

The change in WhatsApp user policy forces several people to migrate to the Telegram app. Meanwhile, Telegram users keep getting “ Contact joins Telegram ” notifications, and it’s downright annoying when you get more than 10-20 notifications per day. So if you want to turn off these Telegram joined contact notifications, there is a way but with a catch.

The overall process can be split into several parts – turn off notifications, turn off discussion threads, and mark threads unread / delete unread threads. We’ve covered them all here. You can do the first one or some of them. It depends on your needs and preferences as to how you want to use Telegram.

Let’s check the steps to turn off contact attached notifications on Telegram and other things.

Who is notified when you join Telegram

Any Telegram user who has saved your number in their phone’s contact list will be notified that you have joined Telegram. It doesn’t matter whether you have registered their number or not. There is no way to join Telegram without notifying others unless they have turned off notifications or your number is not saved to their contacts.

You may see contact attendance notifications in Telegram, and too many of them are getting overwhelming to deal with. This is happening because you let Telegram sync these contacts earlier with your phone and can’t remember them. We suggest that you browse your contacts from the Contacts app on the phone to view them.

Point: If you are using Telegram on multiple devices, you need to verify contacts on all devices.

Now let’s see how to get rid of the notification.

How to stop telegram message attached to contact notification

Telegram offers a way to turn off the notification. However, the following method will only disable push notification. This does not prevent Telegram from creating a new chat. For that, see the section “How to desynchronize contacts from Telegram”.

Note: When you turn off the notification on one device, it doesn’t mean that the same will be changed on all the devices you use Telegram on. If you are using Telegram on multiple devices, you should turn off the notification on all devices separately.

Here’s how to do it on Android and iOS.

Disable Joined Contact Notification on Android

Step 1: Launch the Telegram app on your Android phone.

2nd step: Tap the three bar icon at the top. Select Settings from the menu.

Step 3: Tap Notifications & sounds.

Step 4: Scroll down to the Events section. Disable the button next to “Contact has joined Telegram”.

Disable Joined Contact Notification on iOS

Step 1: Open the Telegram app on your iPhone.

2nd step: Tap Settings at the bottom. In Settings, tap Notifications & sounds.

Step 3: Scroll down and you will find “New Contacts”. Disable the toggle.

Point: Check out 5 messaging apps that work without a phone number.

What is contact sync and how to turn off contact sync in Telegram

As mentioned earlier, disabling the contact join toggle will only stop the notification and not the thread. To prevent Telegram from automatically creating new discussion threads for new participants, you will need to stop syncing contacts with Telegram. A feature known as contact sync is available in Telegram settings for this.

Basically Telegram needs to sync your phone contacts to display them in the app. Syncing contacts helps Telegram display them on all your devices using Telegram. If you do not activate the sync feature, you cannot access your own phone contacts on Telegram. In other words, you will not see your contacts in the Telegram list. This is what the New Telegram Synchronized Contactless Message screen looks like:

Note: In the screenshot above, I also deleted all contacts previously synced with Telegram. The existing discussions will remain intact.

Now you must be wondering how do you chat with people who are new to Telegram then? Well, that’s the limitation.

You will either need to add them manually using their number or username. When added by number, the contact will be saved as a Telegram contact. Think of it as a separate contact list accessible from all the devices you’ve connected to Telegram.

Note: If you turn off contact sync, nothing will happen to previously synced contacts or discussion threads. You can still send messages to existing contacts normally, because you have only turned off sync, which prevents new contacts from syncing.

How to turn off Telegram contact sync on Android and iPhone

Step 1: Launch the Telegram app and go to its settings.

2nd step: Tap Privacy & Security.

Step 3: On Android, scroll down and turn off the switch next to Sync contacts. Also tap Delete synced contacts. Confirm when prompted.

On iPhone, tap Data settings. Turn off the switch next to Synchronize contacts. Then tap Delete synced contacts.

Note: When you delete synced contacts, you lose access to synced Telegram contacts only and not to contacts on your phone.

How to mark all chats as read in Telegram

If that green icon (1) next to new chats bothers you on Telegram, you can mark all chats as read.

To do this on Android, open Telegram settings. Scroll down the Settings screen until you see the version number. Touch and hold it. You will see a ¯ _ (ツ) _ / ¯ emoji pop-up window. Press and hold the version number again. A context menu will appear. Tap Read all chats.

On iPhone, go to the Chats tab. Tap the Edit icon at the top. Then tap Read All.

How to delete multiple threads in Telegram

If you want to take it a step further, you can delete the newly created discussion threads from the Telegram home screen. This will give you a cleaner interface.

To do this on Android, long press any thread. Then tap on the other chats you want to delete to select them. Once you’ve selected the chats, tap the Delete icon at the top.

On iPhone, tap the Edit option in the Chats tab. Then select the discussion threads you want to delete. Tap the Delete option.

Eliminate unwanted notifications

Currently, Telegram does not offer a direct way to stop creating new discussion threads. We really hope Telegram presents a better way to stop the annoying contact that joined the Telegram notification in the future.