Telegram now allows Premium users to paywall their inbox

Telegram already offers strong privacy settings that let you decide who gets to see your phone number, last seen and current status, profile photos, your bio, date of birth, and more. Additionally, the platform also prevents unknown users from being able to message you, though only if you're a Telegram Premium subscriber. For the regular user, setting incoming messages to 'contacts only' is a great way to filter out the noise. However, the setting isn't the most useful for content creators and/or public figures on the platform.