Link your groups, channels and bots into a Community
What it is
In July 2026 Telegram added Communities: several groups, channels and bots on one topic, linked together. People in a community see its other chats and join them instantly, without an invite link. The whole community can sit in your chat list as one item that expands when you open it. Bots got initial support in Bot API 10.2: they see which community a chat belongs to and when chats are added or removed.
How to do it
- Gather the chats that share a topic: your groups, channels and bots.
- Link them into one community. Telegram's post names the choices below, but not the buttons that lead to them.
- For each chat, pick Visible, so every community member sees it, or Hidden, so… For each chat, pick Visible, so every community member sees it, or Hidden, so only community admins and that chat's own members do.
- In the community's settings, decide who can add chats. Once you limit it,… In the community's settings, decide who can add chats. Once you limit it, members' new chats arrive as suggestions instead.
- Choose how the community looks in the chat list: separate chats, or one chat that expands.
Watch out
- Communities are collaborative by default: until you change the setting, any member can add chats.
- Anyone in the community can join a Visible chat instantly, with no invite link. Keep private talk in a Hidden chat.
- Hidden doesn't hide a chat from community admins.
With Gem
Gem doesn't create Communities. Nearby, in /myprojects › Chats, you connect a channel and a group for each language; Gem checks its admin rights, makes a join-request link and approves requests by your project's rules and the person's language.
Sources
- https://telegram.org/blog/communities-editor-invisible-messages
- https://core.telegram.org/bots/api-changelog
- https://core.telegram.org/bots/features