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Archiving chats in Telegram helps you manage a crowded top conversations list, minimize distractions from inopportune messages, and protect your private conversations from prying eyes.
Unfortunately, many users archive chats only to realize that they have no idea where the messages went. The good news is that these chat threads are essentially hidden in plain sight and are easily accessible. This article explains how to find archived chats on Telegram.
How to find archived chats on a mobile device
Once you’ve archived your conversations, you can easily locate, restore, and organize them. To find archived chats, follow these steps:
- Navigate to your main conversations list.
- The “Archived Chats” folder can appear directly at the top of the main conversations list.
- If the folder is not visible, it is hidden. To locate the folder, drag down the list until the “Archived Chats” folder appears at the top of the screen.
- Select the folder to view your list of archived conversations.
- Swipe left on the “Archived Chats” folder in your main conversations list to hide it again.
How to Find Archived Chats on a Laptop or Desktop
From a computer, the process is similar, although there are several options to customize the settings to your personal preferences. By default, the Archived Chats folder will appear at the top of the conversations list with a preview of the first conversation. A right click on the Archived Chats folder will give you the option to “collapse” the folder or “move to main menu.”
Collapsing the folder means that the preview of the first conversation in the list will no longer be visible. You’ll simply see a bar labeled “Archived Chats.” To access the folder, click the bar to open the list of Archived Chats conversations.
Mute
Maybe you need to give your partner a time-out while you focus on work. Or maybe your boss won’t stop sending “urgent” messages during a date night.
If you have moved a chat to the Archived Chats list and want it to remain still and silent, the mute feature is what you are looking for. The mute feature turns off notifications for a preset period of time or indefinitely for any conversation you choose.
To mute an archived conversation, follow the steps below:
- Long press the chat in your Archived Chats list, then select the “mute chat” button.
- You’ll see a list of time ranges to choose from, as well as “disable.”
- Select a time period from the list or select “disable” to silence notifications indefinitely.
Paws
Once you’ve archived several conversations, you may find yourself endlessly scrolling up and down the list to locate a specific thread. Fortunately, you can remedy this using the Pin feature.
Pinning a chat means that it will remain at a certain position in the list, even when other conversations receive notifications and are reordered. Typically, users pin the most used or important chats to the top of the list for easy access.
Pinning archived chats works the same as pinning chats to the main list. To pin a chat thread, follow these steps:
- Press and hold the chat you want to pin.
- Select the “pin” icon at the top of the menu that appears.
This feature means never again losing an important thread in a long list of archived chats. It will remain pinned to the top of the list until you decide to unpin it. To unpin the chat, repeat the same steps, selecting the “pin” icon again to deactivate it.
Massive actions
Bulk actions allow users to select multiple conversations from a list and perform the same action on all of them. This way they won’t waste time repeating the same command for multiple threads. For example, if you want to stop notifications from non-work related threads for the next two hours. You can select all your conversations with family and friends at once and mute them for that specific period of time.
Frequent questions
How did my archived chat end up back in my main chat list?
Archived chats that receive a new message will automatically return to your main conversations list unless they are muted. This feature aims to keep infrequently used threads that are unnecessarily taking up space removed from your main chat list while ensuring you don’t miss out on future notifications. For example, a group chat with family that is used only once or twice a year to plan vacations does not need to take up space in the main list the rest of the year. However, a missed notification could mean a lonely vacation.
How do I restore an archived chat?
To unarchive a conversation manually, instead of waiting for a new message to automatically return it to the main list, open the Archived Chats folder and swipe left in the chat thread. The swipe left feature may differ depending on how the swipe features are configured. To change the swipe left feature, check your settings in the main menu.
Dig up your archived chats
Finding your Archived Chats folder in Telegram is as easy as dragging down the main conversations list. Additionally, you can use the unarchive, mute, pin, and bulk action features to keep those archived conversations neat and organized. This way, you’ll never lose track of a chat again.