A Telegram Saved Messages alternative with a chat for every topic

Why Saved Messages became everyone's notebook

The appeal is obvious: you already have Telegram open, forwarding something to yourself is one tap, and a chat is the fastest way to write anything down. For a few weeks it feels perfect. The problems show up with volume.

Where it runs out

• One timeline for everything. Recipes, work links, passport photos and song ideas all share the same scroll. Telegram has added some organisation over time, such as grouping forwarded messages by their source chat and tags for Premium subscribers, but at heart it is still one feed.
• It lives inside a messenger. Every time you go to look something up, you pass unread chats, channels and notifications. That is exactly the distraction you were trying to avoid.
• It belongs to an account. Your notes are stored with a messaging service and tied to your phone number account there. For many people that is fine; some would rather keep personal notes out of a social app altogether.

What changes with a dedicated notes-to-self app

Stashful keeps the part that works, messaging yourself, and adds the structure a messenger doesn't need:

• A chat per topic. "Work", "Recipes", "Trip to Lisbon". Each chat has its own icon, colour and wallpaper, and a built-in Favorites chat stays pinned on top as an inbox.
• Filters by content type. Inside any chat, show only Media, Files, Links or Voice.
• Tags. Five built-in tags plus your own, usable across chats.
• Search across every chat. Results are grouped by chat, and you can combine keywords with tags.
• No account. Nothing to sign up for. Messages, links and tags sync through your own iCloud under your Apple ID.
• An exit. On any plan, export one chat or all of them to a .zip with Markdown and the original files.

What you give up, honestly

A fair comparison should say where Telegram is ahead. Telegram runs on iPhone, Android, desktop and the web, and your Saved Messages are available on all of them. Stashful is an iPhone app for iOS 26 and later, with no iPad, Mac or web version at the moment.

Sync works differently, too. Stashful syncs only through your own iCloud: messages, links and tags and, starting with version 1.2, also photos, videos, voice notes and files, as long as you're signed in to iCloud with iCloud Drive turned on. Without iCloud Drive, attachments stay only on your iPhone and are removed if the app is deleted, so export chats with media you want to keep.

If you rely on reading your notes on a laptop every day, keep Telegram for that. If your notes mostly live on your phone and the problem is finding things, a topic-based app solves it.

Moving your notes over

There is no automatic import from Telegram, and for most people a full migration isn't worth it anyway. What works is moving what you still use:

1. Create the topic chats first. Look at your Saved Messages and name the three or four piles you see most often.
2. Share the keepers. For photos, videos, files and links, use Telegram's share option on the item and pick Stashful in the iOS Share Sheet, then choose the chat. For plain text, copy and paste.
3. Start fresh from today. Send new notes to Stashful and leave the old thread as an archive. After a month, you'll know what you actually missed.

Many people keep both: Telegram for talking to people, Stashful for talking to themselves. The Share Sheet guide shows how to make Stashful the first option when you share anything.

Questions