Telegram continues to develop News, a recommendation feed that could show users channel posts based on their interests. On October 25, 2026, Gram News researchers retrieved a list of nine topic categories from Telegram’s servers. The open-source iOS client code also revealed mechanisms for rating posts and managing recommendations. For channel owners, this could become a new way to gain organic reach, but Telegram has not yet announced the feature’s launch.
Key Takeaways
- Telegram is developing a separate News tab with two sections: Added and For You.
- On October 25, Telegram’s servers returned nine interest categories, including AI, Crypto, Games, and Politics.
- The iOS client code includes options to rate posts as interesting or uninteresting and to hide similar content.
- Users will be able to add channels to their personal news feed separately.
- The feature was hidden in the iOS build on October 16; its public launch date is unknown.
- The possibility of attracting new subscribers through For You has not yet been confirmed by real-world testing.
What Was Discovered in Telegram on October 25
The first signs of the new feed appeared on October 15 in Telegram’s macOS beta, version 13.0.283318. Researchers identified a NewsUI module and code for two feed types: a recommended feed and one curated by the user.
On October 22, part of the feed implementation appeared in Telegram’s public iOS repository. This made it possible to examine not only the interface but also the logic of its interactions with the server.
On October 25, Gram News tested the feed.getInterestCategories method. Both Telegram’s production and test servers returned the same list of nine categories. This means the topic settings have already been implemented at the server level, not just in the interface.
Telegram’s Nine Recommendation Categories
At the time of testing, Telegram’s servers returned the following topics:
- 🤖 AI — artificial intelligence;
- 💎 Crypto — cryptocurrencies;
- 🧬 Biotech — biotechnology;
- 🕹 Games — gaming;
- ⚽ Sport — sports;
- ❤️ Health — health;
- 🧠 Psychology — psychology;
- 🏛 Politics — politics;
- ✨ Inspiration — inspiration.
Each category has its own identifier and emoji. The data structure also includes a field for custom emoji.
The presence of nine topics does not mean this is the final list. Telegram could change it before release or adjust category availability for different audiences. There is currently no confirmation of such changes.
How Added and For You Will Work
Added: a Separate Feed of Selected Channels
The Added section is intended for channels that a user has added to News. The code provides a separate action for adding a channel to the news feed, as well as an option to remove it.
In this way, Telegram distinguishes between subscribing to a channel and including it in a personal feed. The final rules for handling channels without a subscription will need to be verified after launch.
For You: Interest-Based Recommendations
In For You, users will choose the topics they want to see. The app will send these preferences to the server using the feed.setInterestCategories method.
The interface also supports rating posts. Users can mark a post as interesting or uninteresting. After hiding a post, Telegram will offer options to specify why: stop showing content from that channel, remove similar posts, or remove the channel from News.
This creates a feedback mechanism for recommendations. However, it is unknown how much weight these signals will carry or whether the algorithm will use views, subscriptions, forwards, or other actions.
Why the Feed Is Still Unavailable
The presence of a feature in the code does not mean it can be activated in a beta version of the app.
According to Gram News’s analysis, on October 16 the iOS client developers hid News behind the TELEGRAM_NEWS_FEED_API compilation flag. The feed methods were also removed from the corresponding release build.
In the macOS client, whether the tab appears depends on the server response. If an account does not receive feed data, the interface alone does not make the feature accessible.
As of October 27, 2026, Telegram has not announced a launch date, a list of countries, or access conditions. There is also no confirmation that News will appear in the next stable update.
Will Telegram News Become a New Source of Organic Traffic?
For channel owners, the biggest question is whether For You will be able to recommend posts to people who do not yet subscribe to the author.
If Telegram implements this scenario, channels could gain an additional way to reach new audiences without buying ads or arranging reciprocal placements.
But there is still no confirmed selection algorithm, data on organic impressions, or results from tests on real channels. It is therefore too early to call News an established source of virtually free traffic.
For now, organic promotion on Telegram mainly relies on search, forwards, recommendations of similar channels, and external audience sources. UAGEEK previously explained how to promote a channel in Telegram search.
What Will Change for Media Buyers and Channel Owners?
If News becomes a recommendation feed that reaches people beyond a channel’s subscribers, individual posts could become more important as entry points to a channel.
This could be particularly interesting for news, AI, cryptocurrency, and gaming channels: those topics are already included in the server-side category list.
However, belonging to a popular topic will not, by itself, guarantee recommendations. It is unknown how Telegram will assess content quality, combat spam, or account for the language of posts.
Before launch, it is worth preparing baseline analytics: record typical views after 24 and 48 hours, the number of forwards, subscriber growth, and link clicks. After release, these metrics will help distinguish the potential effect of News from normal fluctuations in reach.
At the same time, the future organic feed should not be confused with paid advertising. Telegram already has separate targeting tools, which UAGEEK covered in its article about Target Users in Telegram Ads. No advertising format within News has been confirmed so far.
What Remains Unknown
The current findings leave several fundamental questions unanswered: whether Telegram will recommend channels without a subscription, how it will rank posts, whether channel owners will receive dedicated News analytics, and whether the feature will be available in every country.
It is also unknown whether recommendations will have their own moderation process and what restrictions may apply to financial, political, and sensitive topics.
The technical findings confirm that Telegram is working on a new way to browse posts. But its real impact on organic promotion will only become clear once the feed is made available to users.
Sources for Verification
Sources for Verification
Gram News, October 25, 2026. Results of testing Telegram’s server methods: nine interest categories, post ratings, changes in iOS code, and availability restrictions.
Telegram Server Provides Nine Topics for Future Recommendation Feed
Gram News, October 15, 2026. Initial technical analysis of NewsUI in Telegram’s macOS beta, the two feed types, and their reliance on server-side activation.
Telegram’s macOS beta ships a For You post feed
PPC.world, October 26, 2026. An independent overview of Telegram’s test recommendation-feed interface for iOS.
What Telegram’s Test Recommendation Feed Looks Like
