The popularity of Telegram continues to grow, gaining millions of users since the beginning of the year due to the WhatsApp crisis. Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram does not limit media downloads to 25 megabytes. Users can send up to 2 gigabytes of video through Telegram chat. This messaging app also features various new functions, such as importing chats from WhatsApp, as one of its latest and most commonly used features.
Many users use Telegram as their primary messaging app, receiving numerous important files and messages through it. However, with the automatic download options in Telegram, you can make sure not to download every image or video automatically in the background, which can take up storage space on your device. For this reason, if you’re not careful, you may end up with a lot of images and videos from Telegram in your photo gallery.
Here’s how to avoid this chaos in your photo gallery and stop Telegram from saving images and videos, whether you use an Android or iPhone.
Steps to Stop Automatic Downloads of Media on Telegram
The following steps are somewhat similar on Android and iPhone; first, go to the Telegram app > Settings > then go to Data and Storage > Automatic Media Download. Here you have two options; you can disable automatic downloads of media “when connected to Wi-Fi.” Or you can disable automatic downloads of media by turning off “when using cellular data.” You can also customize the type of media files you want to keep in automatic downloads using mobile data or Wi-Fi.
If you want to only keep automatic downloads for small-sized videos, simply set the maximum size for videos to be downloaded automatically by clicking on the “Videos” option and changing the maximum size indicator for videos. It’s best to keep automatic downloads enabled if you use an unlimited Wi-Fi network and disable it when using cellular data. But it all comes down to your preferences!
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Turning Off Automatic Saving of Images and Videos on Telegram
To stop saving images and videos to the phone’s gallery on Android, go to Settings > then go to Chat Settings and scroll down to disable the “Save to Gallery” option. That’s it! From now on, downloaded media files will not automatically save to the gallery app. As for iPhone; you can stop saving images from specific chats, groups, and channels on Telegram by going to Settings within the app > then to Data and Storage > Other > disable the “Save Incoming Photos” option.
But remember! Downloading in the background on the Telegram app on iPhone works slightly differently than on Android. When the app is not in use, it will not continue downloading large video files in the background. However, to overcome this, you can enable the “Background Download” option from the settings menu, which is automatically disabled. This way, the app will continue downloading media files for a limited period.
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As we know, the 2GB limit on Telegram for media files is a blessing for many. However, it can be a problem for the receiving user. So make the necessary changes from the automatic download menu and stop saving media and images automatically in the gallery app!
