📱 Registering a Telegram account with a Giffgaff number

📝 How to register

Open Telegram, enter your giffgaff number (format: +44 7xxxxxxxxx) and follow the instructions on screen to finish registering.

💡 Note: do not add a leading 0 after the country code when entering the number; type +44 followed by the 9 digits after the 7.

❓ What if the code does not arrive

If Telegram says:

We've sent the code to the Telegram app on your other device

this usually means Telegram's risk controls were triggered and no verification text was actually sent to the giffgaff number. The methods below are not guaranteed to work; try them one by one:

Method 1: use another device

Try registering again on a brand-new device (a phone that has never logged in to Telegram).

Method 2: change the proxy / VPN

Use a clean UK IP, and turn off location on the phone before trying again.

✅ Tested (30 July 2025): on an iPhone, with Telegram downloaded from the US App Store and using the giffgaff SIM's roaming data (which is already outside the firewall, so no proxy app is needed), registration worked straight away.

Method 3: clear the data and retry

Clear Telegram's app data (or uninstall and reinstall), start it again and enter the number to register.

Method 4: download Telegram from the official site

Go to https://telegram.org/android to download the official installer, and avoid the cached version from an app store.

Method 5: use the old Telegram X client

The old version of Telegram X is more lenient about registration. Once registered, you can log in to the desktop and official clients as normal. Download v0.26.3.1674 from GitHub:

Telegram-X-0.26.3.1674.apk

GitHub · TGX-Android/Telegram-X · v0.26.3.1674

Method 6: change the number

If none of the above works, try changing your giffgaff number and registering again. The number of changes is limited, so use them with care. → See the guide to changing your number

Method 7: buy a ready-made Telegram account

⚠️ About going online with the giffgaff SIM's roaming data: giffgaff roaming is expensive. If you need it, buy a travel data pack in the official app (from £12 for 1GB for China).

💡 Once registered, the next time you log in on another device Telegram sends the code to a device that is already logged in (not by text); just receive it there.

📚 References

• For all those who cannot login or create new account because of no sms

• Can't receive code from Telegram

• Telegram sent a code to your other device, even if I don't have one?