Telegram join requests: member approval, invite links and Guardian bots
By Targa Praetorian ·
The short answer
A join request puts a new account in a waiting list instead of letting it straight in. Admins see the applicant's public profile pictures and bio, then approve or dismiss. You turn it on with Approve new members in a public group, or with invite links that require admin approval. Large groups hand the list to a Guardian bot.
Key facts
- Public groups enable join requests with Approve New Members. Any group or channel can create invite links with Request Admin Approval.
- An admin reviewing a request sees the applicant's public profile pictures and bio, and can approve or dismiss.
- Extra invite links can each have a name, a time limit and a limit on the number of uses.
- Since June 2026 a group can add a bot as an admin to process its join requests. Telegram calls these Guardian bots.
- A Guardian bot can approve a request, decline it, or leave it in the queue for the human admins.
- Approval judges an account once, at the door. It says nothing about what the account posts a week later.
What is a join request on Telegram?
Normally, anyone who opens a group's link is inside one tap later. With join requests, that tap sends a request instead. The account waits in a list that only admins can see. It gets in when an admin, or a bot, approves it.
Telegram offers this in two forms.
| Approve new members | Invite link with admin approval | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Public groups | Groups and channels, on additional invite links |
| How to turn it on | Group Info > Edit > Group Type, set Who Can Send Messages to Only Members, enable Approve New Members | Create an additional invite link and switch on Request Admin Approval |
| What the applicant sees | A Request to Join button | A button to send a join request |
| Applies to | Everyone who wants to write in the group | Only people who use that link |
How do invite links with admin approval work?
Besides its main link, a group can have additional invite links. Each one can have its own name, a time limit, a limit on the number of uses, or all three. Each can also require approval.
That lets you run different doors for different sources:
- A link for your website, with approval on, named "website".
- A link for a partner's announcement, with approval on and an expiry date.
- A link for a private event, limited to fifty uses.
Telegram shows which members joined through which link. When a batch of bad accounts arrives, the name tells you where the link leaked, and you revoke that one link without breaking the others.
What does an admin see when reviewing a request?
A bar at the top of the chat shows the pending requests. For each applicant an admin can see their public profile pictures and their bio, and can approve or dismiss. In a public group, an admin can also write to the applicant first, and Telegram tells the applicant that a group admin is reaching out.
That is all the evidence there is: a name, pictures and a bio.
Where does approving by hand stop working?
- The evidence is thin. A scam account with a pleasant photo and an empty bio looks like half of your real members.
- Real people wait. A request sent at night is approved in the morning. Some people do not come back.
- The list fills up. A raid arrives as hundreds of requests at once. Nobody reads hundreds of profiles with care.
- Approval happens once. An account approved today can post a scam next week, or change its name and photo to copy an admin.
- A public group stays readable. Anyone can view a public group's chat history without joining. Approval decides who can write, not who can read.
Approval is a door. It is not a guard inside the room.
What are Guardian bots?
In June 2026 Telegram let groups add bots as admins to process join requests. Telegram calls them Guardians.
A group's Guardian bot receives each join request and answers it in one of three ways:
- Approve. The account gets in.
- Decline. The account does not.
- Queue. The request is left for the human admins.
Before deciding, the bot can show the applicant a mini app, for example a short challenge. Telegram CAPTCHA bots explains what a challenge stops and what gets past it. A Guardian can also moderate what is posted in the chat, if the group gives it that role.
Two cautions. A Guardian holds the key to your door, so check its exact @username before you assign it. And real screening never asks an applicant for a Telegram login code or a QR scan with their account. See QR code and image scams.
Targa works as a Guardian bot. Turn on Approve new members, give Targa the Process Join Requests admin right, and it screens every join request before the account gets in. Accounts on ban lists, admin impersonators and raid waves are declined at the door. Everyone else is approved in seconds, and every decline is logged with a reason. In watch-only mode it only logs what it would decline and leaves each request to you. It is included on every plan, the free one too. The FAQ has the details.
Which setup fits my group?
These are our recommendations, not Telegram rules.
| Group | Setup |
|---|---|
| Private, people who know each other | No approval. Share the link directly and revoke it if it leaks. |
| Small and public, a few joins a day | Approve new members, approved by hand. Named links for each place you share. |
| Growing, more joins than an admin can read | A Guardian bot on join requests. With 100 or more members, hide the member list. With more than 200, turn on Aggressive Anti-Spam. |
| Large, or a launch ahead | A Guardian bot, limits on what newcomers can send, a named link per campaign, and a raid plan agreed in advance. |
Whatever the size, the door is only the first step. How to protect a group from scammers covers the rest, and the free group check shows what your group exposes today.
Common questions
How do I turn on join requests in a Telegram group?
In a public group, open Group Info, then Edit, then Group Type. Under Who Can Send Messages choose Only Members and enable Approve New Members. In any group or channel, you can instead create an additional invite link and switch on Request Admin Approval for that link.
What do admins see when someone asks to join?
A bar at the top of the chat shows pending requests. For each applicant an admin can view the public profile pictures and the bio, then approve or dismiss. Admins of a public group can also contact the applicant before deciding.
Can a bot approve join requests on Telegram?
Yes. A bot with the right to invite users can approve or decline requests. Since June 2026 a group can also assign one bot as its Guardian. That bot receives every join request and answers it: approve, decline, or leave it for the admins.
Do join requests stop spam bots?
They stop accounts that post in their first seconds, because nothing gets in unchecked. They do not stop an account that looks normal at the door and posts later. Pair approval with limits on newcomers and a bot that reads every message.
Should a small group use join requests?
Yes, if the group is public or its link is shared widely. A few requests a day take seconds to approve, and the group stays clean. A private group of people who know each other does not need them.
See what a scammer sees in your group
The free group check reads a group's public signals and shows where it is exposed. No account needed.