How to join Telegram without notifying other users
To join Telegram without notifying other users, during the signup process, a pop-up appears that says “Telegram needs access to your contacts so that you can connect with your friends across all your devices. Your contacts will be continuously synced with Telegram’s heavily encrypted cloud servers.”
You will be offered two options on this pop-up screen. Please select “not now” if you wish to join Telegram without notifying other users.
On an android device when you are signing in. It asks your mobile number, and below that, it gives an option that whether you want to sync contacts or not.
Keep it unchecked so that your app won’t sync with your contacts, and won’t send notifications to others in your list that “you have joined telegram” as shown in the diagram below:-
How to stop new contact joined Telegram notifications
You can stop these notifications by going to Settings > Notifications and Sounds > Contact joined Telegram.
Turn that option off, and you won’t get notifications about new contacts joining.
If you’d like for chats not to be created either, you’d have to turn off the option to Sync Contacts (Privacy and Security) and Delete Synced Contacts.
This does affect your experience in the app as this way you won’t ever know that someone in your contacts has joined Telegram, and you won’t be able to easily start a chat with them
Can one add contacts on Telegram without knowing their numbers?
Yes, you can actually add someone right from the chat in case you are chatting with them.
So if someone new contacts you, you’ll have the option to add them right away.
Similarly, if you’re in a group chat, and meet a new friend, just go into their profile, and click the ‘Add To Contacts’ button.
If you aren’t already chatting, you can use two methods that don’t require knowing the number:-
Add new contact via username:- Just ask the person’s username and search for it in the global search.
Add nearby people:- Both of you need to open Contacts, and choose ‘Add People Nearby’.
You should see the other person on the menu and you’ll be able to add them right away.
Remember that you can hide your number from someone even once you have them in your contacts.
You can keep your number hidden from everyone, those not in your contacts, some people in your contacts, etc. Just go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Phone Number and choose your preferred level of number privacy