Have you reached the member limit on Telegram and been asked by the messaging platform to upgrade your group to a supergroup? Or, perhaps, have heard of extra perks available in supergroups and are interested in starting one yourself? If you wish to find out more about this type of Telegram community, keep reading our guide.
In this article, we’ll explain in detail what Telegram supergroups are and how they’re different from regular groups. Additionally, we’ll share instructions on creating them and tell you how to upgrade regular groups to supergroups. Finally, we’ll answer the most common questions related to the topic.
How To Create a Supergroup in Telegram
In this section, we’ll share everything you need to know about supergroups on Telegram.
What Is a Supergroup on Telegram?
A supergroup on Telegram is a community that allows for a higher member capacity than an ordinary group. It can be used as a news channel, a place to share work updates, as a forum, etc. Such groups are optimized to manage large communities easily thanks to the introduction of admins. Only the admins can make major changes to the supergroup. Regular users can only delete their own messages. There are more distinctions between regular groups and supergroups in Telegram, but more on that later.
Create a New Supergroup
You can’t create a supergroup right away on Telegram. Instead, you must create a regular group and convert it to a supergroup later. Here’s how to add a new group and upgrade it:
- Open the Telegram app and tap the blue pencil icon at the bottom of your screen.
- Tap “New Group.”
- Tap on the names of contacts you wish to add to your group and enter a group name.
- Tap the checkmark at the lower right corner of your screen.
- Tap the group name at the top of your screen.
- Tap the three-dot icon in the upper right corner.
- From the dropdown menu, select “Convert to supergroup.”
- Confirm by tapping “Convert to supergroup” again.
If you don’t want other members to message in your supergroup, you can, instead, create a channel, one with unlimited member capacity. You can’t convert a group to a channel, however, and need to create it from scratch. Follow the instructions below:
- Open the Telegram app and tap the blue pencil icon at the bottom of your screen.
- Tap “New Channel.”
- You’ll be prompted to select people from your contact list to join the channel. Tap the desired contact names.
- After you mark all users to join the channel, confirm by tapping the checkmark.
- Give your supergroup a name, then tap the checkmark in the upper right corner to confirm.
- You’ll be prompted to the “Channel Settings” page. Here, set the privacy settings of your supergroup and edit the shareable link.
- Tap the checkmark icon to confirm.
Update a Group to Supergroup
Once your regular group reaches 200 members, you’ll be asked whether you wish to update it to a supergroup. Here’s what you should do:
- When the 200-member limit is reached, navigate to the group management page. To do so, tap the group name at the top of the group chat.
- You’ll see a prompt informing you that the member limit was reached. Tap “Update to supergroup.”
- The group will be instantly upgraded to a supergroup. You don’t need to confirm the step.
Note: The creator is set as the supergroup admin by default, though you can manage admins manually later.
However, you can do the same thing even if your group has under 200 members. However, you must be the creator to do so. Follow the instructions below:
- In the Telegram app, find your group chat and tap to open it.
- Tap the group name at the top of your screen.
- Tap the three-dot icon in the upper right corner.
- From the dropdown menu, select “Convert to supergroup.”
- Confirm by tapping “Convert to supergroup” again.
Optionally, you can set a private group to public to convert it into a supergroup. This method works even for groups with under 200 members. Here’s how to do that:
- You must be the owner of the group. Open the Telegram app and find the group in your chat list. Tap to open it.Tap the group name, then the three-dot icon in the upper right corner of your screen. Select “Edit.” Depending on
your version of Telegram, you may have to simply tap a pencil icon.
- Tap “Group Type” and select “Public Group.”
- Optionally, edit the group’s public link under the “Permanent Link” section.
- Tap the checkmark icon to confirm changes.
Note: Not all supergroups are public on Telegram. While making a group public is one of the ways to convert it to a supergroup, you can later make it private again.
Finally, you can select admins to convert a group of any size to a supergroup. Here’s how to do that:
- In the Telegram app, find your group chat and tap to open it.
- Tap the group name at the top of your screen.
- Tap the three-dot icon in the upper right corner.
- Select “Set Admins.”
- Choose contacts in the group to set them as admins. Tap a contact’s name and set the permissions.
- Confirm by tapping the checkmark.
Additional FAQs
Read this section to find out more about supergroups on Telegram.
Is it possible to downgrade a supergroup back to a regular group?
No, downgrading a supergroup to a regular group isn’t possible. Before upgrading it, you’ll be warned that you can’t go back to an ordinary group. Even if you set the supergroup as private, it will remain a supergroup.
What are the differences between supergroups and regular groups?
So, what exactly are the differences between a group and a supergroup on Telegram? Here are the main ones:
• A regular group can hold up to 200 members. A supergroup has a 100,000-member capacity.
• A regular group is always private. Supergroup can be either private or public.
• In a supergroup, you can set admins and their permissions. Regular users can only message in the group, but they can’t make any changes. In a regular group, every user, apart from the owner, has equal editing rights. For instance, they can set the group picture or name.
• In supergroups, you can search for a specific member in the member list. This feature isn’t present in regular groups.
• In supergroups, you can partially ban members instead of kicking them out completely.
• You can view the recent actions of each admin in supergroups.
• Notifications from supergroups are disabled by default.
• Supergroups support bots.
Use the Benefits
Hopefully, our guide has answered all your questions about supergroups on Telegram. As you can see, supergroups in Telegram have been named so not only because of a higher member capacity but because they also offer advanced member and content management tools, such as custom admin permissions and bots.
If you only want to broadcast content rather than talk to other users, we advise creating a channel instead of a supergroup. Channels feature even more perks unavailable in other community types.
Do you wish admins could restrict supergroup members from messaging completely as they can in a channel? Would you add any other perks to Telegram supergroups? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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