How to Change and Customize Typing Indicators in Telegram

Telegram is a popular messaging app that allows you to chat with individuals and groups. One of its signature features is the typing indicator – those three bouncing dots that show up when someone is typing a message to you.

While some users find typing indicators useful, others find them distracting or unnecessary. The good news is Telegram gives you extensive options to customize typing indicators to suit your preferences.

Turn Typing Indicators On or Off

The most basic customization is to turn typing indicators on or off completely. Here’s how:

On Mobile

• Open your Telegram app and tap on the hamburger menu in the top left
• Go to Settings > Privacy and Security
• Toggle the switch for Show Typing to the on or off position

On Desktop

• Click on the hamburger menu in the upper left
• Go to Settings > Privacy and Security
• Toggle the switch for Show Typing to the on or off position

Turning indicators off means you won’t see those bouncing dots for any of your Telegram contacts. They won’t see yours either.

Customize Typing Indicators Per Chat

You can override the global typing indicator setting and choose whether to show indicators on a per-chat basis:

On Mobile

• Open the chat where you want to change settings
• Tap the profile name at the top to open info
• Toggle Show Typing to on or off

On Desktop

• Right click the chat name and choose Chat Settings
• Toggle Show Typing to on or off

Now indicators will show or not show for just that chat, regardless of your global setting.

Use a Custom Typing Animation

Don’t like those bouncing dots? Telegram lets you change them to one of several fun animations:

On Mobile

• Go to Settings > Chat Settings
• Tap Choose Typing Animation
• Select your preferred animation

On Desktop

• Go to Settings > Chat Settings
• Under Typing Status Animation, click the dropdown and select your animation

Some popular options are a beating heart, swinging pendulum, three dots fading in and out, and more.

Create Custom Emoji Indicators

For the ultimate customization, you can set typing indicators to be any emoji you want.

To do this:

• Go to Settings > Chat Settings
• Tap or click Set Custom Emoji
• Search for and select the emoji you want

Now your contacts will see your selected emoji bouncing when you’re typing instead of the usual dots.

Disable Typing Status for Secret Chats

Telegram has a Secret Chat mode that offers end-to-end encryption. In Secret Chats, typing indicators are disabled by default for added privacy and cannot be enabled.

So if you want to privately chat without any typing status indicators, use Telegram’s Secret Chat mode.

Choose Who Can See You Typing

You can also customize which of your contacts see indicators when you’re typing and which don’t.

On Mobile

• Open the chat for the contact you want to update
• Tap their name at the top and choose Privacy
• Toggle Allow Seeing My Typing Status

On Desktop

• Right click the chat name and open Manage Permissions
• Toggle Show Typing Status on or off

Now indicators will show or not show for just that chat.

Use Third-Party Apps (Plus Bots)

In addition to Telegram’s built-in settings, there are third-party Android and iOS apps that take customizations even further:

• Replace typing indicators animations with your own videos or GIFs
• Create indicators with your name or a custom message
• Auto-send prewritten responses when you start typing
• Create specialized bots that interact with the typing status

So if Telegram’s options aren’t enough, search your device’s app store for “Telegram typing indicator” apps.

Conclusion

As you can see, Telegram provides tons of ways to tailor typing status indicators to match your preferences – whether you want to show your personality with custom emojis or disable them entirely for privacy.

The ability to override settings on a per-chat basis gives you granular control. And if Telegram’s built-in features aren’t sufficient, third-party apps offer even more ways to customize.