You open Telegram on your phone, and instead of the app name the top bar says "Connecting...", and your chats won't update. A friend sent you a link, or three cryptic lines, or maybe you're typing "telegram proxy android" into a search bar yourself. And the results immediately want you to download something: a separate "proxy" app, a modded Telegram, and in one article, right in the first lines, a menu path that simply doesn't exist in today's Telegram for Android (though it covers the mods in great detail).
You don't need to download anything. Telegram's help pages say plainly that all its mobile and desktop apps can connect through a proxy, so the official Telegram for Android, the one you install from Google Play or from telegram.org, already has this setting. No "proxy" APK, no mod and no root needed.
I checked every label below against the English strings in the Android app's code on GitHub, the latest sources for version 13.0.2.
What to do with the link someone sent you
A proxy link usually starts with https://t.me/proxy? or tg://proxy?, followed by the server, the port and the secret. The easiest thing is to tap it right inside Telegram, in the chat where you got it. The app opens a proxy window with a "Connect Proxy" button.
The same window has a "Check Status" button, and before checking, Telegram honestly warns you: "This will expose your IP address to the admin of the proxy server." You can relax here: the owner of an MTProto proxy can't read your messages or identify your account. But they can see which IP you connect from and when, and the simple fact that you use Telegram. That's why Telegram's proxy help page advises using proxies only from a source you trust.
I'll say this right away: we sell proxies ourselves, so I can't look at that advice as a complete outsider. But the advice comes from Telegram, not from me, and our part comes only at the very end. Where to get a link and how to decide whom to trust is covered in more detail in the article about Telegram proxies. One more thing: a proxy doesn't need your login code, the link and the fields only hold a server, a port and a secret. And Telegram itself asks you never to share that code with anyone, including other services and apps.
Sometimes the link opens in a browser instead of Telegram, for example if you tapped it in another app. This may depend on your Android version, your browser and which links your phone is allowed to open in apps, so I can't say in advance how it will go for you. Sometimes, instead of the proxy window, you just get the Telegram website. Telegram Web doesn't support proxies, so there's no point setting one up in the browser.
Either way, copy the whole link and open it inside the app. Usually it's enough to send it to yourself in "Saved Messages" and tap it there, though that's more my guess than something I know for sure. There's also a more reliable path: the "Paste from clipboard" item, more on that just below.
What if you got three lines instead of a link
Sometimes a proxy comes in pieces: a server address, a port and a long string of letters and digits. Guides call that string the secret, and in Telegram for Android its field is labelled "Secret" too. Here's the path:
- Open "Settings" → "Data and Storage".
- At the bottom of the page, tap "Proxy Settings".
- Tap "Add Proxy".
- Choose the type "MTProto Proxy".
- Fill in "Server", "Port" and "Secret" and save the proxy.
For SOCKS5 the type is "SOCKS5 Proxy", and you need a server and a port there, sometimes also a "Username" and "Password". How you get into "Settings" itself depends on the version and the interface layout, so I'm not describing that button here.
You don't have to retype a long secret by hand. If there's a proxy link on your clipboard, the add screen shows a "Paste from clipboard" item, and it fills in the fields and picks the type for you. Copy the whole link, including the https:// or tg:// at the start, because the app doesn't recognise a string without that beginning as a link.
Once the proxy is added, you can pass it to a second phone. The proxy card has "Share" with a QR code, and the caption under it says: "Your friends can add this proxy by scanning this code with phone or in-app camera."
How to tell the proxy is working
There's a hint right in the title above your chat list. While Telegram is connecting through a proxy, it says "Connecting to proxy..." rather than "Connecting...", and with no internet at all it says "Waiting for network...". Tap that title and the proxy list opens. Once the connection is up, the text goes away.
Old guides look for a proxy icon in the top right corner, and Telegram's help describes a shield icon above the chat list. In recent Android versions the proxy icon has moved into the three-dot menu "⋮". There's a "Proxy" item there labelled "Connected", "Connecting" or "Disabled", and it usually shows up when a proxy is on. An older version of the app may do it differently.
In the proxy list each entry shows its status, "Connected", "Available" or "Unavailable", with a ping next to it like "Ping: … ms". If it says "Unavailable", I wouldn't wait for it to come back, I'd take another proxy from a source you trust. Sometimes Telegram itself says the connected proxy "is not configured correctly and will be disabled" and asks you to find another one.
When you have two or more proxies and they're turned on, "Auto-switch proxies" appears in the list. With it, Telegram moves to the next proxy by itself if the current one stops working, and you can set how long it waits.
A couple of things from old guides cause confusion. Some tell you to turn on a switch for calls, and if you don't have one, that's normal, because recent versions of Telegram for Android no longer have that switch. And if an unfamiliar channel shows up in your chats after you connect, most likely the proxy owner is showing it. Telegram warns that this doesn't reveal your traffic and suggests turning the proxy off if you want that channel gone.
You turn the proxy off in the same place you added it: "Proxy Settings" has a "Use Proxy" switch.
If you want your own link for each device
Now, as promised, about us. FreeGate gives you a personal MTProto proxy, and the connection to it is disguised as ordinary HTTPS. It works only inside Telegram, while your banking app and other apps go online as usual. Each device gets its own link, and if one leaks, you change it in your account with one tap, and the old one stops working at once.
It connects the same way as any proxy with a link. If your account is open on the phone itself, use the "Connect in Telegram" button, and if it's open on a computer, scan the QR code with your phone. Then Telegram asks about the proxy, and all that's left is to tap "Connect Proxy".
You can try it for free first: 1 day after you sign up with an email and confirm the address, with no payment and no automatic charges. After that it's $1.00 for 30 days or $2.50 for 90 days, and that's the price per device, so a phone and a computer are already 2 devices. You can start at freegate.app/world.