With the latest privacy issues with Facebook’s insanely popular instant messaging platform, WhatsApp, more people are abandoning the app and leaving for some of the competing platforms.

There aren’t so many apps capable of challenging WhatsApp’s monopoly on the instant messaging front. One of those few apps are Telegram, explaining the recent surge in the number of Telegram download over the past few weeks.

If you’re planning to make the switch over to Telegram, we can help. In this guide, you’ll learn how to install Telegram on your Android or iOS smartphone and then your laptop in an integrated ecosystem.

How to Install Telegram on Android Smartphones

With Android being the most popular operating system for mobile phones, there’s a decent chance that you use an Android phone as your primary or secondary device.

While you shouldn’t use your primary Telegram account on a work device, you can create a separate work Telegram.

This post isn’t about digital segmentation, so I’ll quickly jump into the steps required to install the app on a supported Android smartphone.

• Open the Google Play Store on your smartphone and navigate to Telegram. As it’s impractical to find it manually, you can use the search button at the top of the interface to find the app quickly.
• Click on the Install button and accept all of the conditions required to install Telegram. You’ll need to wait for a while as the installation progresses.
• When the installation is complete, the Install button should change to an Open button. Click on the Open button to open the Telegram app on your phone.

After launching the app for the first time, you will be required to provide and verify your phone number. Provided that you can verify the number, you will instantly access your Telegram account if you have one already.

However, if you’ve not created a Telegram account previously, you may need to go through the setup steps of choosing a username and a profile picture.

Once you’ve created and signed into your account, you can start chatting with anyone on Telegram. Your contacts are already on Telegram, and you can find and message other users, even if you don’t have their contacts.

How to Install Telegram on iOS Devices

If you own an iPhone, the steps above don’t apply to you. There is a significant difference between the installation steps for the two operating systems, and you need separate tutorials.

If you’re one of the millions of people that use an iPhone, here are the steps required to install and set up Telegram on your device.

• Launch the App Store on your iPhone and find the Telegram app. You can also find it quicker by searching, so you should make judicious use of the glorious search bar at the top.
• Tap on the GET button on the Telegram listing on the App Store. Since Telegram is a free app, you should see an install button come up after tapping the button.
• Wait for the app to finish downloading and installing and close the App Store. Now, you can find Telegram from your home page and tap on it to open the app.
• Enter your phone number and verify it if necessary. If you don’t have a Telegram account already, you should create it at this juncture.

After signing up for an account on Telegram, you can start chatting with all your contacts on the app for free. You can also join Telegram channels and groups, and you can also chat with random Telegram users.

How to Install Telegram on a Laptop

There are a couple of ways to install Telegram on your laptop, depending on the operating system you use on the computer.

Firstly, you can install it as a progressive web app, the only option for Chromebooks. You can also install it as a standalone program on a Windows or macOS-based laptop.

Even if you own a laptop running on Windows or macOS, I recommend going for the web app option, as it’s by far the most intuitive way to run Telegram on a laptop computer.

Nevertheless, I’ll show you how to install Telegram as a web app and as a standalone program for Macs and Windows computers.

1. How to Install Telegram as a PWA

This works on Chromebooks, Windows PCs, and Macs through a browser. Fire up any modern browser on your laptop and follow the steps below to install Telegram.

• Open webk.telegram.org on your computer to open the web portal for Telegram.
• Open Telegram on your smartphone and tap on Devices from the settings. Tap on “Scan QR Code” from the options on the interface.
• Using the camera that pops up, scan the QR code showing on the webpage on your laptop, and it will instantly sign you in to your Telegram account.

If you own a Chromebook or do most of your work inside a browser like me, this option is a no-brainer. It also gives you the most intuitive Telegram interface of all the options available.

2. How to Install Telegram on a Windows PC

Installing Telegram on a Windows PC only involves navigating to telegram.org from your computer and clicking on “Telegram for PC/Linux.”

On the next page, it will automatically learn your operating system and adjust for it. You can click on the “Get Telegram for Windows x64” to download Telegram to your computer and click on the downloaded file to commence the installation.

You can either sign in to Telegram as usual or use the QR code option. Either way, you should get access to Telegram on your computer in no time.

3. How to Install Telegram on a Mac

Installing Telegram on a computer running macOS is the same as the steps required to install it on a computer running Windows.

However, instead of clicking on “Telegram for PC/Linux,” click on “Telegram for macOS,” and you’re good to go.

Conclusion

Telegram may not be the best alternative to WhatsApp, especially when analyzing its privacy and security aspects, but it works.

One way Telegram is better than WhatsApp is multi-device synchronization. If you own a laptop, an iPhone, and an Android phone, you can use the same account across all devices.

This post shows you how to do that most simply and understandably possible.