Telegram received stories for channels, but the new feature turned out to be pretty complex, especially the new boosting system, so the users are asking a lot of questions. @tginfo editors will answer them here.
Table of Contents
- Intro
- For Channel Subscriber
- How The Boost System Works
- For Channel Owner
- How to get boosts for my channel?
- How to post stories as a channel?
- Where can you post stories?
- How often does the story limit reset?
- If I reach the daily limit, can I delete an old story and make a new one?
- What permissions do I need as an admin to post stories on a channel?
- How the new channel admin story permissions work?
- How to use boost links?
What are boosts in Telegram?
The boosts were introduced to Telegram as a way for channels to access new features by asking their subscribers to «vote» for them.
Users boost their favorite channels they subscribe to. When the channel receives enough boosts, it gets access to enhanced features.
How many boosts does a user get?
Originally, Telegram Premium users only received only a single boost. Since November 6th 2023 the system was changed:
- 4 boosts for buying a Telegram Premium.
- 3 boosts for gifting Premium to another user.
- 1 boost for receiving Premium as a gift from another user.
- No boots for receiving Premium as a gift from a channel.
Available boosts received from different sources sum up. For example, if you purchased Telegram Premium for yourself and also gifted the subscription to two of your friends, you get 4 + 3 + 3 = 10 boosts.
If you boosted any channels before November 6th, you could get new unused boosts.
A user can give all their boosts out to a single channel, or spread the boosts among a few channels. If a user boosts a channel, the boost is active until Telegram Premium subscription is active or until the user changes the channel they boost.
If you have at least a single boost available:
- You can’t see total number of boosts you have
- You can’t see the number of unused boosts you have
- You can’t see expiration dates for your boosts
- You can’t remove your boost from a channel you boosted earlier
All these management options become available only when you used all boosts you had. In such case, when you try to boost another channel that goes over your boost limit, the messenger will tell all the boosts were used and will provide the list of given boosts, together with info on what channels the boosts were given to and boost expiration dates.
A user can reassign a boost to another channel, but this can only be done once every 24 hours per boost. In such a case, the boost is removed from the previous channel and applied to the new one. The moment the boost is transferred, it ceases to be active for the initial channel. If the original channel was just one boost away from losing a level, this transfer will result in the immediate loss of that level. Consequently, the channel will also immediately lose access to the enhanced features associated with that level. Stories that were already published in last 24 hours won’t disappear until they expire or until they get deleted by channel admin.
What are the differences between channel and user stories?
In channel stories you don’t have privacy settings: it’s always available to all Telegram users, and in the case of private channels — only to subscribers. In any case, the story is displayed above the chat list only to channel subscribers.
The admin of the Telegram channel can’t see the list of users who have seen the story or learn which users leave reactions. Stealth Mode is not available in channel stories for the same reason — it’s simply not needed there.
Do channel admins know who boosted the channel?
The stats only disclose 25 last boosters and expiration dates for their Telegram Premium subscriptions.
Besides that data, the channel statistics contains the total number of Telegram Premium subscribers in the channel.
On the stats screen you can find info about how many users boosted the channel, what level is the channel on, and how many boosts are left until the next level. At the same time, the said info is public and is available to any user who can boost the channel since this information is displayed in user’s boost popup. In the case of a public channel, all users can see the data, but in a private one, only subscribers can view it.
Where are the channel stories displayed?
The channel story will be displayed in the panel above the channel list for all channel subscribers, even if the channel is in archive. The channel admin can’t control this behavior, while the user can hide the stories from a given channel by sending them to the Archive.
Stories appear on the panel in chronological order. Stories from your Premium contacts go first, then regular users, and channel users go the last. All viewed stories are displayed after the channel stories with the same ordering logic.
You can also view the channel’s story by opening the channel and clicking its avatar. This means any Telegram user can view public channel’s stories without subscribing.
How to hide channel stories?
If a channel has a published story, all future stories of this channel can be hidden. To do this, simply press and hold the channels avatar on the stories panel (from PC — right click) and choose «Hide stories» in the context menu. You can find the hidden stories and undo the action in the Archive.
If the channel you wish to hide stories from doesn’t have published stories currently, you can’t hide its stories in advance.
The channel’s stories will disappear from the stories panel if you unsubscribe the channel.
Why larger channels need more boosts?
A channel starts from Level 0, which doesn’t give it any story posting functionality. To get the channel on Level 1 at least 0.1% of the channel’s subscribers need to boost it, with rounding up. That would be every 250th subscriber. Because of this, the larger the channel is, the more boosts it needs. Also, because the formula rounds the number up, even if the channel has a single subscriber, it still needs at least one boost.
How many levels are there?
The max level is level 100, which gives the channel 100 stories daily. There are no other perks from the boost system (promises of protection from trolling and moderator skins you could see in Telegram’s blog is a joke).
Level cost: Subscribers × 0.004, with rounding up.
To reach the next level you need to get exactly as many boosts more as it took you to get to level 1.
How to get extra boosts?
Before November 6th 2023, channels could only get boosts by receiving ones from its channel subscribers. Now channels can farm boosts by receiving 4 boosts per gifted or raffled Premium subscription.
Can you boost a channel without subscribing it?
If the channel is public, you can boost it without subscribing.
You can boost a private channel only if you subscribe it, but if you leave it after that, the boost will stay in the channel. Even if you give the boost link to a user, they won’t be able to open it unless they are subscribed for that channel.
How to get boosts for my channel?
Channel admins are supposed to ask for boosts from their subscribers. The admins can collect the boosts using the special links with «?boost» parameter at the end. An admin with rights to send messages or post stories can find the boost link in channel stats on «Boosts» tab.
You need to post the link, asking the subscribers to boost.
It’s important to know that older versions of Telegram don’t display any messages that contain the boost link and show the «Message is not supported» error instead. If you want to ask your subscribers to update their apps, it’s better to do this in a separate post without the boost link.
How to post stories as a channel?
You need to meet the following conditions:
- Get enough boosts on your channel.
- Have story posting rights on your channel.
- In some cases — have Telegram Premium subscription. Telegram requires the subscription only in some countries, particularly on accounts with phone numbers from India, Iran, Russia, and Ukraine.
To publish a story, you just need to open the story editor and record a story as usual, after that on the post settings screen you can tap your profile and choose a channel you admin instead.
Where can you post stories?
You can post stories in public and private Telegram channels. You can’t post stories in group chats.
How often does the story limit reset?
The counter resets after 24 hours since the first story was published. After the reset you can post a whole new set of stories. No need to wait for the previous stories to expire — when the counter resets, all story slots for your level become available immediately.
A story is considered first if it was published after the story counter was reset.
If I reach the daily limit, can I delete an old story and make a new one?
No. Deleting a story does not recover the daily story posting limit. The counter resets only after 24 hours since the first story was published.
Deleting a story doesn’t free a slot for a new story. For example, if you post all three out of three available stories and delete one of them, you still won’t be able to post new stories until 24 hours after the first story.
What permissions do I need as an admin to post stories on a channel?
Story posting is available to the channel owner and admins with the dedicated story posting permission. In some regions the owner or admin will need a Premium subscription to post stories even if the channel has already reached level 1.
How the new channel admin story permissions work?
Only admins with «Post stories» permission can create new stories.
The «Edit stories of others» permission gives an admin access to the channel’s Stories Archive.
Only admins with «Post stories» or «Post messages» permission have access to the «Boosts» tab in stats. The «Post stories» permission gives access explicitly only to the «Boosts» tab, while «Post messages» gives access to full stats. The «Boosts» tab contains info about number of Telegram Premium subscribers in the channel, the boost link, and last 25 boosters with expiration dates of their Premium subscriptions. The «Boosts» tab is available to channels of any size, no matter how many subscribers.
How to use boost links?
To boost a channel, users need to follow the boost link. Boosting a channel without using the boost link is impossible, as there’s no such button in the interface.
If you don’t have access to the statistics displaying the boost link, you can create it manually.
To do this, take the HTTPS link to the channel and append the «?boost» parameter at the end. For example, for the channel https://t.me/tginfo, the boost link will look like https://t.me/tginfo?boost.
You can also create a link based on the unique channel identifier. This type of link works for both public and private channels and will continue to work even if the public channel link changes.
The boost link based on the identifier looks like this: https://t.me/c/<ChannelID>?boost, where <ChannelID> is the unique ID of the channel. For instance, for the @tginfo channel, the link will be https://t.me/c/1003307527?boost.
To create a boost link for a private channel, simply grab a link to any message from that channel (e.g., https://t.me/c/123456789/1), remove the last numeric identifier from it, and append the «?boost» parameter to get a link similar to the example above.