Some Tips on Telegraph (2020)

· 2 min read
Some Tips on Telegraph (2020)

What and Why Telegraph?

Telegra.ph, or Telegraph is a publishing platform hosted by Telegram. It could be used to publish blog or any other articles, either signed or anonymously.

Telegraph comes native with Telegram instant view support and some other Telegram integration. It is simple to use, and generates well-formatted web pages for readers.

Simple Editor without Markdown

Telegraph editor features a minimalistic style. Some experienced users might think it is a Makrdown-enabled one, but unfortunately it is not. Basically, it is a rich text editor of the traditional WYSIWYG style.

Limitations on Editing

Telegraph provides very limited editing abilities for existing posts. As the editor of the article, you are:

  • ABLE to change the title
  • ABLE to change the content
  • UNABLE to change the automatically generated URL
  • UNABLE to delete the post

Some limitations are confusing and problematic. For example, if you compose a advertisement but somehow want it deleted, you are not able to. All you can do is change the title, delete the content and pretend it does not exist.

And even though you can edit your articles, there are something to be noticed: Telegra.ph does not recognize who you are, so it stores your identification in browser cookies, meaning that you need to use the same browser with the same profile as when you create the article to edit it. If you lost that cookie, say acidentally clear browser data, you will not be able to edit your articles. Fortunately there is a Telegram bot to help with the problem.

Better with Telegram Bot

Developed and hosted by Telegram, there is an official Telegram bot @telegraph to help use Telegraph. You can log in with the bot, manage and view the statistic your articles.

Once you logged in on your device, a link to Telegra.ph containing your identification will be opened up and your Telegram nickname will be shown in the top-right corner on the Telegraph editor. Don't worry - you are still able to change the publish name as you like. But through logging in, Telegraph now knows who you are so you can edit all your articles even on a brand new browser.

How about the articles you wrote before logging in? Just open the articles with the same browser again and Telegra.ph will ask if you want to save the article to your articles for later editing on another devices.