27-01-2026 08:43 PM
I uploaded a few private gifs to a private chat in Telegram, nothing special or so I thought.
BUT today I wanted to drop an animated gif in a public channel; I am using the Samsung Keyboard, which has a "gif" button directly to the left of your message typing field.
If I use that gif button, I am suddenly seeing (and been offered) the gifs I used in a private chat.
HOW!??
I have all the automatic download options disabled. I even emptied the app's cache etc and I went through some of the advanced options in regards to automatic downloading of media (which is disabled by default - who needs over 100,000 gifs and images!).
Nothing seems to help: all the gifs remain visible. I cannot find a folder where those gifs are. Even worse, I uploaded those gifs to my private chat from my Windows dekstop computer through my official desktop client. I have auto play enabled on Android and I have opened that chat at a later time on my phone too.
Please explain to me how this could happen? And how I could disable this feature? I see this as a privacy breach.
Thanks 
27-01-2026 09:25 PM
31-01-2026 07:27 PM
Thanks for your reply! I feel like I need to quote from my original post:
"I have all the automatic download options disabled. I even emptied the app's cache etc and I went through some of the advanced options in regards to automatic downloading of media (which is disabled by default - who needs over 100,000 gifs and images!)."
This only happened on my Samsung phone, with the Samsung keyboard.
I don't see how this is a Telegram "feature" or bug, seen that it never ever happened on my Google keyboards.
Thanks!