Tips & Tricks

Stickers, Themes and the Proxy: Performance Tips

Animated stickers and custom themes can be slow to load on bad networks. The proxy helps.

MTProto Proxy Engineers · Censorship Circumvention Researchers

Published April 27, 2026 Updated May 15, 2026 8 min read 268 words

Why stickers are slow

Animated stickers (Telegram's TGS format) are vector-based and very small per file (under 100 KB), but a sticker pack contains 30+ stickers and each must download separately. On a flaky network this means 30 round-trips, each of which can timeout. The cumulative delay can be several seconds.

Video stickers

The newer video sticker format (WebM) is even more bandwidth-intensive — 1-3 MB per sticker. Loading a video sticker pack on cellular without a proxy can take 30-60 seconds. With a TGFast proxy, the same load takes 5-10 seconds.

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Browse the live country grid on the home page and tap any card to connect Telegram in one second — no signup, no logs.

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Themes

Custom Telegram themes (.attheme files) are tiny but include background images that can be 1-5 MB. The same proxy benefits apply — custom themes load faster behind a proxy on flaky networks.

Pre-loading vs streaming

In Settings → Stickers and Emoji, enable "Suggest Animated Emoji". This pre-fetches commonly-used animated emoji so they display instantly. The proxy makes the pre-fetch faster.

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Cache management

Telegram caches stickers and themes locally so repeat uses are instant. After enabling a proxy and using stickers for a few days, your cache is warm and the proxy effect on stickers becomes invisible. The proxy still helps for new stickers and themes you have not seen before.

Disabling stickers entirely

On extremely limited connections, you can disable animated stickers entirely: Settings → Stickers and Emoji → toggle off "Loop animated stickers". This stops the playback animation but the stickers still display as static images.

Custom themes for restricted regions

Several community themes are designed specifically for low-bandwidth use — they have minimal background images. Search "lite theme" in the Telegram theme channels.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the TGFast service really 100% free with no hidden tier?

Yes — there is no premium plan, no data cap, no email signup and no injected advertising. We run our proxy fleet on donated bandwidth and infrastructure; the only request is that you join our channel @FastTGProxyMT so we can notify you of IP rotations or planned maintenance.

Are the steps and server addresses on this page current as of May 2026?

Yes. Every TGFast guide is reviewed on a 30-day cadence and the proxy addresses on this page are checked every five minutes by our automated monitor. If any server stops responding the page is updated within minutes and a notice is posted to the channel.

Do I need a VPN in addition to TGFast?

No. An MTProto proxy is purpose-built for Telegram and only routes Telegram traffic, which means your other apps stay on your normal connection — faster page loads, better battery life, and no risk of leaking unrelated traffic through a proxy you don't control.

How can I tell which TGFast server is fastest for me right now?

Open the home page on a desktop browser — the live latency widget pings each of our proxy fleet from your location and ranks them. Pick whichever shows the lowest number; you can switch in two taps inside Telegram if conditions change later.

Will my chat history sync correctly when I switch servers?

Yes. The proxy is a network transport only; all data, contacts, channels and message history live in your Telegram cloud account. switching between TGFast proxies (or any other) re-establishes the link without any visible disruption to your conversations.