I Deleted Telegram and I Will Never Turn It Back On

I deleted Telegram. Not paused. Not muted. Not “I’ll check it later.” Deleted. Retired. Done.

If you ask me to move a conversation to Telegram, the answer is no. I do not use it. I do not have it. I will not reinstall it for you, for a deal, for a group chat, or because one person was polite about it last time. Get me on WhatsApp, email, X, a phone call, a carrier pigeon — anywhere else on earth.

This post exists so I can send one link instead of typing the same rant every month.

The cycle that broke me

Here is how it always went:

1. I turn Telegram off because the spam is unbearable.
2. Life gets quieter. My brain unclenches. I forget why I hated it.
3. One real human messages me: “Hey, can you talk to me on Telegram?”
4. I think: How bad can it be? I’ll turn it back on for one person.
5. Within minutes — sometimes seconds — the spam returns.
6. I turn it off again, annoyed at myself for forgetting step one.

Rinse and repeat. For years.

I am done with the loop.

What Telegram spam actually looks like

If you have not lived inside it, you might think I am exaggerating. I am not.

That is a real screenshot from my phone — same afternoon I turned the app back on. “Hi, darling.” “Do you want to go on a date with sexy girls nearby?” Random profiles with blue-star Premium badges sliding into the inbox like this is normal. It is not normal. It is the reason I deleted the account.

• “Hi darling.”
• “How are you today sweetie?”
• Random profiles with one photo and a username that looks like keyboard yoga.
• Messages that pop into every corner of the app like the platform is hosting a bot convention.
• Dozens per day — not over a week, per day.

Absolute garbage. Not borderline. Not “maybe a sales lead.” Garbage.

And here is the part that still blows my mind: I do not get this on WhatsApp. I do not get this in email at this volume. I do not get this in the other chat apps I actually use for business and life. It is disproportionately, aggressively, insultingly bad on Telegram.

5 reasons I am out for good

1. The spam-to-signal ratio is insane. One legitimate conversation is not worth forty bot greetings.
2. Reinstalling teaches the wrong habit. Every time I turned it back on, I rewarded the platform and punished my attention.
3. My time is not free inventory for scammers. I run businesses. I have a family. I do not owe Telegram a daily inbox of fake affection.
4. Better channels exist. WhatsApp, email, X DMs when appropriate, phone, Zoom — all of them work without turning my pocket into a casino.
5. Life is too short for apps you dread opening. Same energy as cutting subscriptions you do not use — I wrote about that kind of clutter in Do a Life Audit Before You Go Location Independent and 7 Decisions That Made Our Life Feel Intentional. Telegram was digital junk with push notifications.

Official policy going forward

Read this twice if you need to:

I do not use Telegram. I do not have Telegram. Do not ask.

If we were talking somewhere else and you suggest Telegram, I will redirect you. Not because I am difficult. Because I already ran the experiment too many times and the result never changed.

Where to reach me instead

• Email — always works. Use the contact page or discovery form if you want a structured path.
• WhatsApp — fine for real conversations with people I already know.
• X — public or DM when the context fits.
• Phone / Zoom — for anything that actually matters.

Pick literally anything else. I am flexible on channel. I am not flexible on Telegram.

Final thoughts

Maybe Telegram is perfect for your crypto group or your private community or your cousin in another country. Cool. Not my problem anymore.

For me, the platform turned into a spam hose the second my account existed in public. I am not volunteering for that again so one polite person can save twelve seconds finding me on WhatsApp.

Telegram is retired. If this post saves me one “hey can you get on Telegram?” message, it already did its job.