How to Find People on Telegram: A Complete Guide for 2025

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How to Find People on Telegram: A Complete Guide for 2025

Finding someone on Telegram isn’t as straightforward as other social platforms—and that’s by design. Telegram prioritizes privacy, meaning users can be virtually invisible unless they choose otherwise. The good news: once you understand how Telegram’s search ecosystem works, you’ll have multiple paths to locate the people, groups, and channels you’re looking for. This guide covers everything from native search features to third-party tools and safety best practices.

Telegram’s Built-in Search Works—With Caveats

The magnifying glass icon at the top of your chat list is your starting point. Telegram’s Global Search scans across contacts, public usernames, groups, channels, and bots simultaneously. Tap it, type your query, and results appear organized by category.

Username search is the most reliable method. If someone has set a public @username, typing it (with or without the @ symbol) surfaces their profile instantly. Usernames are case-insensitive—@JohnDoe and @johndoe return identical results. You can also find users through direct links like t.me/username.

Phone contact search works differently. When you grant Telegram contact permissions, it syncs your phone’s address book and automatically identifies contacts who use the app. If you add someone’s number manually, their profile appears—but only if they’ve enabled the “Who can find me by my number” setting. Many privacy-conscious users disable this entirely.

For searching within groups and channels, open the chat, tap the header, then hit the search icon. You can filter results by sender, making it easy to find specific messages from particular members. In groups, tapping “Members” reveals a searchable member list—though admins can restrict this in large communities.

Here’s what native search cannot do: find users who haven’t set a public username, locate people who’ve hidden their phone number, search by display name alone (globally), or access private groups and channels. Secret Chat messages aren’t searchable at all since they’re never stored on Telegram’s servers.

Third-Party Search Tools Expand Your Options Significantly

When Telegram’s native search falls short, external directories and search engines fill the gap. These tools index public Telegram content—channels, groups, bots, and publicly visible usernames—creating searchable databases far more comprehensive than Telegram’s own search.

TGStat

TGStat stands out as one of the largest platforms, cataloging over 2.5 million channels and groups with 54+ billion indexed posts. New content appears in their search within 7 seconds of posting. Beyond basic search, TGStat provides detailed analytics: subscriber growth trends, engagement rates, and channel rankings. The free tier covers basic searches; paid plans unlock advanced analytics and data exports.

Telemetr.io

Telemetr.io offers similar capabilities with 11+ million channels indexed. Its standout feature is event tracking—set up keyword alerts and receive notifications when specific terms appear across public Telegram content. Both tools support morphological search in Russian and English, meaning searches understand word variations automatically.

Telegago

For a simpler, Google-like experience, Telegago leverages Google’s own index of t.me domains through a custom search engine. No account required—just search like you would on Google, using familiar operators like quotation marks for exact phrases.

Lyzem

Lyzem takes a unique approach with its own web crawlers, often surfacing obscure content other tools miss. It also searches Telegraph, Telegram’s publishing platform.

For casual users who want quick results without navigating complex analytics dashboards, Telegram Search provides an accessible, easy-to-use option. Just type what you’re looking for and get instant results—no account required. It’s a great beginner-friendly entry point into third-party Telegram search.

Privacy Considerations

All major tools claim to index only public content, but they may log your search queries, use advertising trackers, and some require linking your Telegram account. For sensitive research, use a VPN and consider creating a separate research account rather than your personal profile.

Search Bots Bring the Hunt Directly Into Telegram

You don’t need to leave the app to access enhanced search capabilities. Several Telegram bots specialize in finding users, groups, and channels.

User Lookup Bots

  • @TelegramDB_bot – Maintains a database of over 300 million chats and 1 billion user records. Its /where command reveals which public groups a specific user has joined—useful for understanding someone’s interests or verifying their community involvement.
  • @TgScanRobot – Offers similar group-membership lookup with additional “last seen” timestamps.

Channel Discovery Bots

How to Use Search Bots

Most search bots work through simple commands: /search keyword for general searches, /channel keyword for channel-specific results. Many support inline mode—type @botname query directly in any chat for instant results without opening the bot’s conversation.

Limitations & Safety

Bots cannot access private groups, see content from users with strict privacy settings, or read private messages. Databases may lag behind real-time changes, and premium features often require purchasing credits.

Safety is paramount—legitimate bots never request your password, verification codes, or payment card details. Report suspicious bots to @notoscam or abuse@telegram.org.

Privacy Settings Determine Who Can Find You

Telegram’s privacy controls are surprisingly granular, and understanding them helps whether you want to be found or stay hidden.

Phone Number Settings

The Phone Number setting (Settings → Privacy and Security → Phone Number) has two critical sub-options:

  • “Who can see my phone number” – Controls visibility on your profile. Set it to “Nobody” to hide your number even from contacts.
  • “Who can find me by my number” – Determines whether someone who already has your phone number can locate your Telegram account.

Username Visibility

Setting a public username is the single biggest factor in discoverability. With one, you appear in Global Search results and anyone can message you through t.me/yourusername. Without one, you’re essentially invisible to strangers unless you share a group or they have your phone number.

Additional Privacy Settings

  • Profile Photo – Who sees your picture
  • Last Seen – Your activity status
  • Forwarded Messages – Whether forwards link back to your profile

Each can be restricted to Everyone, My Contacts, or Nobody.

Maximize Your Visibility

If you want to be found: set a memorable username matching your brand across platforms, use a recognizable profile photo, write a descriptive bio, and join relevant public groups where potential contacts might find you.

Maximize Your Privacy

For maximum privacy: delete your username entirely, set phone number visibility to “Nobody” with “find by number” restricted to “My Contacts,” disable profile photo access, and consider Telegram’s Anonymous Numbers feature (blockchain-based, no SIM required).

Safety First When Searching for Strangers

Scammers exploit Telegram’s relative anonymity. Before engaging with anyone found through search, verify their identity through official channels—contact organizations through their website, not just a Telegram profile.

Red Flags to Watch For

  • Usernames with character substitutions (letter “O” replaced with zero, “I” with lowercase “L”)
  • Recently created accounts
  • Generic or stolen profile photos
  • Urgent requests for money or personal information

Legitimate users and organizations typically have verification badges, consistent activity history, and cross-platform presence you can verify.

Protect Yourself

  • Never share one-time passwords, verification codes, or financial information through Telegram—even if someone claims to be “support”
  • Enable Two-Step Verification (Settings → Privacy → Two-Step Verification)
  • Regularly review active sessions (Settings → Devices) to spot unauthorized access

Recent Updates Have Reshaped Telegram Search (2024-2025)

Telegram’s search landscape changed dramatically in late 2024. In September, Pavel Durov announced a major algorithm overhaul: a team combining AI and human moderators now actively filters search results, removing “problematic content” and applying shadow bans to channels that violate guidelines.

Discontinued Features

The “People Nearby” feature was discontinued entirely in late 2024 due to abuse by spammers and scammers, replaced by a business-focused alternative showing only verified local establishments.

New Search Features

  • Global hashtag search (May 2024) – Now surfaces results from major public channels, not just your own chats
  • Channels tab (April 2024) – Shows recommendations based on your current subscriptions
  • AI-powered sticker search (December 2024, expanded February 2025) – Understands complex queries like “cat drinking coffee” across millions of stickers in 29+ languages
  • Global Public Post Search (July 2025) – Exclusive to Telegram Premium subscribers, adds a “Posts” tab showing results from across all public channels

Privacy Policy Changes

Privacy policy changes following Durov’s August 2024 arrest in France mean Telegram now shares IP addresses and phone numbers with authorities on valid legal requests—a significant shift from its previous terrorism-cases-only stance. Transparency reports show compliance jumped from 14 requests fulfilled in January-September 2024 to over 900 in the final quarter alone.

Conclusion

Finding people on Telegram requires understanding both the platform’s privacy-first architecture and the ecosystem of tools that work around it. Native search handles usernames and synced contacts effectively but stops at private content and users who’ve opted out.

Third-party platforms like TGStat, Telemetr.io, and Telegram Search extend your reach into public channels and groups. Bots bring search capabilities directly into Telegram’s interface, while understanding privacy settings helps you control your own discoverability.

The 2024-2025 changes—AI moderation, People Nearby removal, new search tabs—reflect Telegram’s ongoing evolution between openness and privacy. For everyday users, the fundamentals remain: know someone’s username for guaranteed results, respect privacy settings that limit visibility, and approach strangers found through search with appropriate caution.