Telegram’s Wear OS App Returns in Beta After a Five-Year Absence

Telegram is back on Wear OS, five years after the messaging app walked away from Google’s smartwatch platform. The new beta brings full chat access, voice messages, and chat management to Pixel Watch and Galaxy Watch for the first time.

It also lands alongside a new Apple Watch app that CEO Pavel Durov announced days earlier. Both apps arrived in the same Telegram update, with the Wear OS release currently available only to users enrolled in the company’s beta program on the Play Store.

Five Years Off the Wrist

Telegram’s original Wear OS app was discontinued in 2021, before the Pixel Watch existed and while Samsung’s Galaxy Watch was still running Tizen. Owners of the Galaxy Watch 4, the first Samsung watch on Wear OS, and anyone who later bought into the Pixel Watch line had no official Telegram app to install on their wrists. The new beta app, which arrived in the same Telegram release as a new Apple Watch app, closes that gap for the first time.

The platform Telegram abandoned is unrecognizable today. Samsung has shipped multiple generations of Galaxy Watch on Wear OS, joined by the Galaxy Watch Ultra, since Telegram’s last app was live. Google announced Wear OS 7 with Gemini at its I/O developer conference in May, rolling out to consumer watches later this year. Every watch Samsung has sold in the Galaxy Watch 4 era ran on a platform without an official Telegram app. The Pixel Watch line has never had an official Telegram app on Google’s first-party smartwatch hardware. Telegram’s return comes at the end of a generation of Galaxy Watch and Pixel Watch owners who never had an official app for the platform.

What’s in the New Wear OS App

The Wear OS app gives users full access to existing chats, with the ability to read long messages, send replies, and record and listen to voice messages. Chat backgrounds set on the phone carry over to the watch, and the interface is tuned for circular displays with a layered card layout the company says handles even large group chats cleanly. A prominent “Open on Phone” button at the bottom of each conversation hands off to the phone for longer reading. Pinning, muting, and deleting chats are also supported, per Telegram’s full announcement of the smartwatch apps.

Stickers and location sharing are on the Apple Watch app but not yet on Wear OS. Telegram has signaled both are coming to Wear OS in a future update. GIF and video playback, also on the Apple Watch app, are not on the Wear OS release either.

For some reason, our Android developer added muting and pinning chats, as well as deleting messages. Meanwhile, the iOS developer added viewing locations and sending stickers. Why?? We will never know. We’ve convinced them to steal these features from each other in the next update.

Telegram’s blog post, written by the company itself rather than by a press team, framed the platform split as a developer quirk. The blog post is the same Telegram post that announced the new dual smartwatch launches. Telegram’s two smartwatches now sit on different feature sets, with the company framing the gap as a developer quirk to be resolved in the next update.

A Beta-Only Rollout for Now

The Wear OS app is currently available only to users enrolled in Telegram’s beta program through the Google Play Store. Telegram has not committed to a date for a wider rollout, and the app should appear as an installable companion in the Play Store on the watch for anyone on the beta channel.

New users can enroll by scrolling to the bottom of Telegram’s Play Store listing and tapping the “Join” button on the beta card, per the beta program and the 2021 Wear OS exit. The same Telegram release also brought the bot, poll, markdown, and browser changes that ship alongside the new Wear OS app. Telegram’s last Wear OS app was discontinued with no public reason given, and the company has not offered one for the timing of the return either. The new beta marks the first time Telegram has had a working Android smartwatch app since 2021, and the rollout is starting small.

• Bot text formatting upgrades
• Links inside poll options
• Markdown file support
• Long-press to open links in the external browser
• Force specific sites to open in the external browser

The Apple Watch App That Arrived Days Earlier

Pavel Durov announced the new Apple Watch app on X on June 9, calling it “fully native.” Setup mirrors the web and Mac clients: the watch app displays a QR code that the iPhone’s Telegram app scans, then asks for a cloud password if one is enabled. After that, contacts and existing conversations are available on the wrist, with support for GIFs, video playback, voice and text messages, location sharing, and stickers, per the native Apple Watch app and its first-day features. Telegram’s official Apple Watch app runs as a standalone client, distinguishing it from the third-party clients that have filled the gap for years. The native framing is what Telegram has not had on watchOS since 2015, when the company last shipped an Apple Watch app.

The Apple Watch app supports a wider feature set than the Wear OS release out of the gate. Telegram’s first Apple Watch app shipped in 2015 with Telegram 3.0, and the company dropped native watchOS support after a few years. The new version marks Telegram’s return to Apple Watch after more than ten years, with stickers, locations, and media playback that the Wear OS version is missing. Telegram’s App Store release notes for the latest update do not mention watchOS support, even though the watch app is rolling out in the same release.

Durov’s announcement came three days before the Wear OS app’s quiet beta debut. The Apple Watch app requires watchOS and a paired iPhone, the same pairing the Wear OS app uses with Android. Telegram’s two smartwatches now sit on different feature sets, and the company has tied their convergence to its developers stealing features from each other in the next update.

What Telegram Users Used in the Meantime

Telegram’s long absence from Wear OS was enough time for unofficial clients to build loyal audiences. TeleWatch, a third-party Telegram client for Wear OS, accumulated a user base in Telegram’s absence and remains available on the Play Store alongside the official return, per TeleWatch and the unofficial clients that filled the gap. Other open-source options, including TGwear on F-Droid, also filled the smartwatch-shaped hole for Telegram users. The official return does not come with a statement on whether the third-party apps will stay available, leave the store, or fade as the official app matures.

The competitive context shaped the wait. WhatsApp launched its own Wear OS app in 2025 and has had smartwatch support for over a year, leaving Telegram’s absence a frequent complaint in wearable forums. Telegram’s return now puts the two apps on a similar footing for the first time, though feature parity is not there yet. The Apple Watch app carries stickers, locations, and media playback, while the Wear OS release opens with chats, voice, and chat management. For users who installed TeleWatch in 2022, the official app is the first one in five years that connects to their chat history without a third-party bridge, and the unofficial clients remain useful for now, particularly for Telegram power users who value specific features the official Wear OS release has not yet brought across.

Closing the Gap to WhatsApp on the Wrist

Telegram’s return lands as a quiet catch-up. The platform Telegram left has become the dominant Android smartwatch line, and the absence is a long one. The beta-only release signals Telegram is gauging demand before a wider push.

WhatsApp’s head start, plus a wider feature set on Apple’s platform, leaves Telegram closing a gap, not setting one. The Wear OS version’s missing features (stickers, locations, media playback) are the visible checklist Telegram will need to work through, and the company has said the two teams will swap the missing pieces in the next update. The Apple Watch version’s first-week feature set is closer to what Telegram’s other clients can do, but on a smaller wearable market. Telegram’s earlier exit from Wear OS still has no public explanation, and the new app’s beta-only debut does not commit to a full return or a timeline for the next feature swap.

For Telegram’s existing watch users, the most concrete change is which app runs first on the home screen. The official Telegram app now sits next to TeleWatch on the Play Store, and the unofficial clients will keep working until Telegram says otherwise. For new smartwatch owners buying into the Galaxy Watch’s history with Telegram and a Pixel Watch 3, the choice is simpler than it has been in half a decade: Telegram is on the wrist, and the chat history moves with it.

• 5 years since Telegram’s last Wear OS app
• 2021: original Wear OS app discontinued
• June 2026: new app available in beta
• 2 platforms: Apple Watch and Wear OS launched in the same Telegram update
• 2015: Telegram’s first Apple Watch app shipped

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I install the new Telegram Wear OS app?

Sign up for Telegram’s beta through the Google Play Store. Once enrolled, the Wear OS app should appear in the Play Store on your watch as an installable companion, and the same beta also unlocks the Apple Watch app on iOS.

Is the Telegram Wear OS app available outside of beta?

Telegram has only opened the Wear OS app to beta users, with no public date for a stable rollout. The company has not explained why it returned to Wear OS now, after exiting the platform in 2021 without a public reason.

What’s different between the Wear OS and Apple Watch versions?

The Apple Watch app ships with the broader feature set: GIFs, videos, stickers, and location sharing. The Wear OS app carries chats, voice messages, and chat management features (pinning, muting, deleting) that the watchOS version does not. Telegram has said the missing features will swap sides in a future update.

Which smartwatches work with the new Telegram app?

Any watch running Wear OS supports the new app, including the Pixel Watch line and Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 and newer. The Apple Watch companion runs on watchOS and needs a paired iPhone for the initial QR code setup.

When did Telegram drop Wear OS originally?

Telegram’s last Wear OS app was pulled in 2021, the same year the Galaxy Watch 4 brought Samsung fully onto the platform. The Pixel Watch did not yet exist. The new beta app is Telegram’s first official return to Android smartwatches in five years.