Introduction

VC investors have been pouring money into Discord alternatives. Initially built for gaming communities, Discord has become a de facto platform for web3 communities, but it's often criticized for its confusing interface and overwhelming array of features. This got us thinking, is the next 'Discord killer' an app we already use?

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Telegram, the popular chat app with over 700 million monthly active users (MAU), just released a feature called 'Topics,' which allows group admins to create multiple sub-channels within one group. Like channels on Discord or a Forum, it enables conversations to be broken down into subjects.

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The article will take a quick look at this new feature and explain how you can leverage it to support your community.

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What does Telegram's new Topics (forum) feature do?

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"Topics function as individual chats within the group – supporting their own shared media and notification settings. Members are free to chat in any topic from Anime to Zoology." source, Telegram

The new feature is intended for large groups that want to customize chats, keep things organized and promote specific discussions. 

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As with Discord, there will need to be a balance between having too few topics resulting in too much activity in a single channel to follow Vs. having so many channels within a group that it becomes overwhelming.

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Currently, topics are only available for groups of over 200 members; however, Telegram announced they plan to introduce a different set of tailored tools for smaller groups, so keep your eyes peeled.

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How to set up Telegram's new Topics (forum) feature

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Group admins can easily enable topics in their Group Settings and can control who can create and manage topics within Permissions.

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How to efficiently use Telegram to provide customer support for your community 

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At Mava we are increasingly seeing demand from web3 communities to provide omnichannel support. You can integrate Mava with all of your community platforms, including Telegram, to provide a consistent customer support experience wherever your users are. 

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You can leverage the new Telegram topics feature to keep things even more organized. We suggest adding a separate topic called Support Tickets or Contact us. From here, users can easily activate the Mava Telegram ticketing bot to seek help. All messages are sent in real-time to the Mava support dashboard, where you can respond, triage and organize everything. Moreover, you can leverage Mava's full suite of automations to help save time and money. 

Conclusion

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Using this new topics feature, supporting huge Telegram communities will become much easier for the admins and users. It will help keep chats easy to read, and any group with over 200 members can now enable topics and create separate spaces for any subject.

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Setting up topics takes under 5 minutes and can be done from the Group Settings section by any group admin. 

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If you want to see what topics look like in action and how you can set up a dedicated 'support ticket' topic, check one of the Mava Telegram communities here.

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If you want to supercharge your customer support using Telegram, get in touch with the Mava team for a demo today. 

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