Telegram Advertising
Telegram Mini Apps
Telegram or Discord? It’s a question more brands are asking as communities become central to trust, growth, and retention. Each of these platforms attracts different audiences, encourages varied interaction styles, and provides unique tools for scaling engagement. Let’s explore how Telegram and Discord compare, what makes each one stand out, and which platform might be the better choice for building an active, engaged community in 2026.
- Telegram Overview: Strengths and Engagement Tools
- Discord Overview: Strengths and Engagement Tools
- Comparing Platforms: Telegram vs. Discord for Engagement
- Which Platform Drives Better Engagement in 2026?
Telegram Overview: Strengths and Engagement Tools
Apart from being the second most popular messenger worldwide, Telegram is also a platform where millions of users engage in groups, follow the latest updates on various projects, trade crypto, play games, book services, and more.
Telegram’s Worldwide Reach and Regional Hotspots
Telegram is used by more than 1 billion people globally. In regions like Asia, Latin America, and MENA, it has become one of the core platforms for communication, staying up to date with the latest news, and bot-powered services and entertainment.
Source: Telegram Marketing Statistics and Trends: The 2025 Report
Lightweight UX
Telegram’s interface feels fast, minimal, and familiar to anyone used to typical communication platforms. This reduces onboarding friction and makes it easier for projects to push time‑sensitive broadcasts in communities and groups during launches, airdrops, or flash offers.
Blum’s channel
Channels and Groups
Channels are what makes Telegram different from other platforms. These are one‑way broadcast spaces where projects share announcements, launches, and news. Since subscribers get notifications about new posts instantly and check Telegram several times a day, your channel may become a go‑to hub where your community stays in the loop and feels consistently engaged.
Source: Telegram Marketing Statistics and Trends: The 2025 Report
Groups, on the other hand, are built for direct communication between members. They also offer a rich toolkit for admins to help even fast‑moving, large‑scale groups stay organized and under control. Many projects run a channel for updates and a connected chat group for more informal interaction, and that is what we recommend doing to create better visibility and ongoing engagement.
Topics in a Telegram group
Integration of Bots and Mini Apps
Telegram chatbots help communities feel more alive and responsive. Since they’re relatively easy to set up, these tools have become increasingly popular. There are now more than 10 million active bots handling finance, customer support, entertainment, and beyond.
To illustrate, crypto projects and fintech platforms may use bots to guide new members the moment they join, sharing key links, rules, or even market alerts without requiring a human admin to step in. This can instantly reduce confusion and help newcomers feel better oriented. Other brands rely on bots to deliver content on request, collect feedback after product updates, moderate groups, or automate customer support questions. In short, integration of bots into chats allows teams to reduce manual work and save up to 30% of their time.
Whales support bot
Telegram mini apps, which can replace traditional apps and even websites, take things even further. TMAs are already used regularly by over 500 million people for gaming, shopping, booking services, managing crypto, and countless other tasks. All interactions happen inside a single platform people actively use every day, which is especially valuable when app fatigue is growing: most traditional mobile apps retain less than 4% of customers.
Catizen mini app
Advertising Capabilities
When you need to scale your community, the platform offers several advertising formats that blend naturally into the content and complement the user experience:
- Telegram Ads appear in channels, bots, and search results. While often text-based, they can include emojis, banners, or short videos to boost visibility and drive better engagement.
- Mini apps ads show up directly within mini apps at natural breakpoints. Ads may come in the form of static or animated banners, videos, or even interactive tasks. Such a smooth integration of ads in mini apps lets users enjoy the app without interruptions.
- Telegram influencers are channel owners with loyal followings who can help you spread your message authentically and drive real engagement.
Discord Overview: Strengths and Engagement Tools
Initially designed for gamers, Discord has grown into a versatile platform that supports creators, developers, and projects of all kinds. Today, Discord has over 370 million monthly active users engaging across servers on different topics, such as gaming, education, crypto, and more.
Discord Users by Country
Discord’s user base is heavily concentrated in a few key markets. The United States leads by a significant margin, while Brazil, India, the United Kingdom, and Germany make up the next wave of active users.
Discord’s biggest user bases by country. Source: World Population Review
Server and Channel Architecture
Discord servers can hold large member counts and are split into multiple categories, often by topic, project, or function. This structure helps members find exactly what they care about, which creates a better experience that encourages people to stick around. Take a look at the Blox Fruits community on Discord where players chat about the game, share fan art, find trades, and more:
Blox Fruits community on Discord
A server can also bring members together in a voice or video channel for real-time conversations or casual hangouts, and a stage channel makes it easy to run structured events like Q&As, workshops, or live announcements.
Role-Based Access for Member Tiers
This is one of Discord’s most strategically valuable community features, especially for projects that view their community as a long-term business asset. This system allows administrators to create multiple membership layers, such as free members, contributors, premium users, partners, or moderators, and grant each tier precise access to content and capabilities. Role colors make it easy to see at a glance a member’s permissions and status.
Example of role colors. Source: Discord
This feature turns a Discord community into a living engagement funnel, where members are naturally encouraged to participate, contribute, and stay active. This not only makes their journey through the community more visible but also adds an aspirational element: people feel motivated to level up and be part of something special.
Discord Bots
Discord bots help communication flow without constant manual effort. They can handle a variety of tasks, including:
- Answering customer questions
- Greeting new members
- Moderating chats
- Managing streams
- Filtering spam
Beyond the basics, the integration of Discord bots can turn your server into a more engaging and interactive space. They can track member activity, award XP or levels, and even run leaderboards, which encourages ongoing participation.
Comparing Platforms: Telegram vs. Discord for Engagement
Now, let’s see how the platforms stack up on their key features:
Which Platform Drives Better Engagement in 2026?
Both platforms have grown far beyond their original purposes. Telegram, initially a simple messaging app, has become a multifunctional platform with communities, groups, bots, and mini apps, while Discord has transformed from a gamer chat tool into a full-featured community hub.
Discord is great for structured discussions and long-term loyalty, but Telegram’s growing popularity is making it a strong contender for real, active community engagement. More and more people are joining the app: it gains about 2.5 million new users each day. However, a growing user base is just one sign of Telegram’s expansion. The integration of bots and mini apps has turned it into a fully integrated ecosystem, where services, games, shopping, and crypto tools all live in one place without forcing users to download separate apps.
Another advantage is that Telegram still has far less competition than most mainstream platforms. It’s a great opportunity for projects to test new formats, foster better engagement, and grow their communities before competition heats up.
