How would a Telegram TLD work?

Messaging app Telegram announced they were applying for the .gram in the 2026 round of the new gTLD program. If successful, they plan on giving users a second-level domain name (2LD) with their Telegram username as an upgrade on their current username.t.me and t.me/username setup.

Although .me is treated as a gTLD by the likes of Google because of it being popular in general usage, it's actually the ccTLD for Montenegro and their control of it proved problematic for Telegram in July this year when the t.me domain was suspended. Operating as the registry for their own TLD would reduce the risk of all their user links being knocked out by a third party outwith their control. We know from other announcements that there is some competition for .gram though - at least two other organisations have submitted an application for it (LFG and Unstoppable). I don't know if Telegram can argue any sort of advantage based on trademarks (or whether other companies like Instagram might contest it based on their own) but they only seem to have trademarks for 'Telegram' not 'gram' so they might have to convince ICANN that users could be confused if .gram didn't relate to Telegram.

At the moment username.t.me links serve the purpose of opening up a direct chat with an another user without needing to know their phone number. Telegram are looking to expand this to websites using the username.gram but we don't have details on whether that will be included for free, if it includes any sort of hosting or just DNS control to point the domain to space elsewhere. My understanding is that the registry for .gram would have to be run as a tightly controlled one - if the domains are directly tied to usernames in the Telegram app then it would easier for them to have full control.

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There is already a market for what Telegram calls "collectible handles" which can be auctioned on marketplaces like Fragment. This all seems to be done on some Telegram blockchain called TON which might further complicate how .gram could be operated as a TLD in the ICANN namespace. The draft report ICANN published as a result of the technical study group looking into integrating with alternative naming systems makes for sobering reading for anyone hoping to undertake such a task. It already spooked Unstoppable into not applying for five TLDs they had already been selling to customers with the understanding that they would essentially be gaining early ownership of what would also become a traditional domain name in the future. They offered refunds to anyone who bought them after they announced their intention to submit applications to ICANN but it seems to have left a lot of their customers unhappy about the U-turn.

I'm not personally a fan of Telegram but I am interested in this (so-far) unique approach to using 2LDs as usernames when we are so used to only seeing usernames given as 3LDs with the likes of Bandcamp or Wordpress. It would be nice if their website plans were something akin to what Neocities offers and I could see the 2LDs being popular on AT Protocol applications like Bluesky where your username is a domain name. People already love using web3 addresses like username.eth as their Twitter display names even though they can't be accessed using a standard DNS setup.

It also sets up a nice domain hack for Telegram to move from telegram.me and telegram.org to tele.gram (though their official account's username is telegram which would currently give them telegram.gram...).