How Do You Follow a Telegram Channel Written in a Language You Do Not Read?

Translation happens in flight

The source publishes in its language; your destination receives it in yours. Ten languages are covered: English, Italian, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic. You choose the language you want to receive; the source language does not need to be declared, because it is recognised from the message itself.

One rule translates into one language. Two audiences in two languages means two rules with the same source and different destinations. A translation rewrites the text, so the fine-grained formatting of the original cannot be preserved word for word; attachments, links and your own header and footer are unaffected.

What happens when the AI credit runs out

Translation is charged per use against your AI credit rather than being included in the plan. When the credit reaches zero, the message is still relayed, untranslated: the AI step is skipped, nothing is lost and nothing is held back, and you are told once that the credit has run out rather than discovering it from a silent gap in the destination.

Long posts can arrive short

A length threshold decides what gets touched: below it, the message is relayed exactly as written; above it, it is shortened to a brief form, a detailed one, or bullet points. For a long post that is really a list, bullets read far better. A summary shortens what was written and can affect any part of it, figures included — where numbers matter, the detailed form is the safer choice. When the credit runs out, the message is relayed in full, unshortened.

Screenshots count too

Many channels publish the substance as a picture: a chart with the levels written on it, an announcement laid out as an image. Reading the text inside images joins what is found to the message — and the order matters: the reading happens before the filters, so a picture-only post stops being invisible.

Reading images is the most expensive of the AI steps, charged per image. Very large images are skipped rather than processed, the image itself is never altered, and when the credit runs out the message is still relayed with the picture intact.

The filters still decide what travels

None of this removes the need to choose. The keyword whitelist on the rule sees the text read from images exactly like written text, so the rule keeps the posts about what you follow and drops the rest — before the AI steps spend any credit on them.

What it costs, honestly

The AI tools belong to the Platinum plan and are not included in the 7-day trial. They run on prepaid AI credits, separate from the subscription, and are charged per use — so a well-set length threshold and a keyword filter that keeps the volume down are also what make the credit last. The plan comparison is on the pricing page.

Setting it up, in order

1. Create the rule: the foreign-language channel as the source, your private channel as the destination.
2. Add the keyword filter that keeps only what you follow.
3. Switch on translation and choose your language.
4. Switch on summaries and set a length threshold.
5. Switch on reading text inside images if the channel publishes screenshots.
6. Send a few posts through and read what actually arrives before relying on it.