We use semantic search now
Our channel search used to look for the letters you typed inside channel names. Now it reads what each channel is about and matches it to what you mean. Type “apartment renovation” and you get renovation channels, even when they are called “My Renovation | Moscow” and written in Russian.
What changed
Most Telegram channels have short, creative or untranslatable names. A cooking channel might be called after its author, a betting channel after a mascot. Searching by name alone missed them, so people had to guess the exact word a channel owner picked.
Semantic search compares meanings instead. It looks at a channel's title, category, topics and description, works out what the channel is about and checks how close that is to your query. Words do not have to match, and neither does the language.
Search by name has not gone anywhere. Both run on every query and their results are merged, so typing a channel's exact username still puts that channel first. How it works.
- Describe a channel the way you would to a friend: “news about electric cars”, “memes for programmers”.
- Search in your own language and still get channels written in others. Searching in any language.
- Paste a t.me link or an @username straight into the box: we strip it down to the channel name. Search tips.
- Narrow any result list by category and language with the filters on the search page.
Try it
These queries share few or no words with the names of the channels they find:
- apartment renovation
- crypto for beginners
- learn english with movies
- football betting tips
- baking recipes
- receitas de bolo