To copy a Telegram channel means taking its existing posts — text, photos, videos and files — and putting them into another channel or group, in the same order. Telegram has no button for this. Copying chat history is coming to TelegramBuddy but is not built yet; join the waitlist below for early access. When it launches, you will be able to pick a source and a destination and let the app work through the whole history from your own account.
Below is how it is planned to work, when it makes sense to use it, and what you can already do today.
What copying a Telegram channel will do
The copy tool is planned around the same rule shape as the rest of the upcoming features: a source chat your account can read, optional processing, and a destination chat you can post in. The difference from auto forwarding is direction in time. Auto forwarding handles new posts as they arrive; copying handles the posts that are already there.
When it launches, you will be able to:
- copy every post in a channel or group, oldest to newest;
- limit the copy to a date range, or to certain media types;
- choose between forwarding (keeping Telegram’s “Forwarded from” header) and posting as new messages, for content you have the right to republish;
- stop part-way and continue later without duplicating what was already copied.
When you would use it
- Moving to a new channel. You are starting a fresh channel — a new name, a clean admin list, a different topic split — and want the archive to come with you.
- Migrating a group. An old group has grown messy or was set up wrongly, and you want to transfer the old messages into a new group before you invite everyone across.
- Keeping a spare copy inside Telegram. A second, private channel that mirrors your main one, in case something goes wrong with the original.
- Splitting or merging. Moving one project’s posts out of a shared channel into its own, or bringing several small channels into one.
How it is planned to work
- Sign in to TelegramBuddy with your own account — QR code or phone number, plus your api_id and api_hash from my.telegram.org — exactly as the app works today.
- Open the source chat. Private channels you are a member of will open the same way they do now: by invite link,
t.me/c/message link, @username or numeric id. - Pick the destination, which must be a chat where you can post.
- Choose the range and the mode, then start. The app will work through the history from the oldest message.
- Watch progress and pause or resume when you like.
Details that matter
- Subscribers and members do not move. Copying moves posts, not people. You will still need to invite members or share the new link.
- Posts will not keep their original dates inside Telegram. A copied message is a new message and Telegram stamps it with the time it was sent. The plan is to let you add the original date and author to each copy so the history still makes sense.
- Protected channels stay protected. If “Restrict saving content” is on, the owner has said the content should not leave the chat. TelegramBuddy will not copy those chats. Ask the owner if you need the material.
- Only copy what you have the right to. Your own channel, your team’s group, material you are licensed to repost. Republishing someone else’s channel as your own is not what this is for.
- Telegram’s rate limits apply. A long history will take time. The app already waits out Telegram’s “slow down” requests during downloads and carries on, and copying is planned to work the same way. We are not promising any particular speed.
How it compares to the alternatives
| Forward by hand | Telegram’s built-in export | TelegramBuddy copy (planned) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Result | posts in another chat | files on your computer | posts in another chat |
| Keeps order | only if you are careful | yes | yes |
| Long histories | slow and error-prone | fine | works through it for you |
| Can resume | you track it yourself | start the export again | continues where it stopped |
Forwarding by hand works for a few dozen posts. Beyond that it is easy to skip or repeat messages. Telegram’s built-in export is good for a backup on disk, but it does not put anything back into Telegram.
What you can do today
If what you need is a safe copy of a channel rather than a copy inside Telegram, that already works. TelegramBuddy can export a whole chat to a readable HTML page or to JSON, with the media linked inline, and bulk download every photo, video and file into a folder per chat. Re-running a download only fetches what is new, so you can keep the backup current. There is a step-by-step walkthrough in exporting Telegram chat history, and private channels are covered on the private channel downloader page.
Join the waitlist below to hear when copying a Telegram channel is ready.