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Better reads, from Telegram blasts

I get a competitor briefing every morning. And a daily market report every afternoon.

The content is valuable. The formatting is brutal.

No spacing. No headers. A hundred lines of text pushed through Telegram as one block. I skim it, miss half, and feel guilty about it.

The person writing it isn't doing anything wrong. Telegram's formatting options are limited. Markdown works inconsistently. And when you're trying to pack analysis into a small screen, you optimise for speed, not readability.

But if nobody reads it, it's wasted effort.

Key takeaways

  • Break text into short, scannable chunks — max 4 lines per block.
  • Use consistent visual signals: bold for headlines, dashes for lists, line breaks between sections.
  • Example format below — copy and adapt.

The problem is attention, not content

I've been on both sides. As a founder, scanning 20 reports a day. As someone who used to write updates for teams at Deputy and Suncorp — trying to fit everything into one message before people moved on.

The mistake is treating Telegram like a document. It's not. It's a conversation. A wall of unbroken text reads like a chore.

The fix isn't more information. It's better structure.

What actually works

Three rules I've tested across my own teams and personal projects:

  1. One idea, one block. No paragraph longer than 80 characters (about 4 quick lines). If you need more, separate with a blank line.

  2. Bold the hook. The first three words of each section should tell me what it's about. "Competitor hire — [name] joined [company]" is instantly scannable.

  3. Lists, not sentences. A bullet list with dashes takes half the mental load of a prose paragraph. Use them liberally.

Example: the reformatted competitor briefing

Here's what the improved version looks like. I sent this to our small team at GoVisually yesterday as a test.

Morning brief — Tue 18 Mar

Packaging compliance news

  • FDA proposed new label format for nutrition panels. Comments open until June. [link]
  • EU Green Claims Directive enforcement starts Q4. Expect audit uptick.

Competitor moves

  • Labelmate Solutions hired ex-FDA reviewer as compliance lead. Signals enterprise push.
  • Signify competitor acquired by InData. Deal closed Friday, terms undisclosed.

Our pipeline

  • Three new trials started yesterday: two CPG, one contract manufacturer.
  • One enterprise renewal signed. Annual value: $36k.

Internal note

  • Customer call at 2pm needs prep. I'll share the agenda in 30 min.

That's it. 12 lines. Every block does one job.

Compare it to the original — a single paragraph with no line breaks, a wall of text I had to read twice to find the date. The reformatted version takes 10 seconds to process.

Telegram's quirks

Telegram doesn't do great with tables or complex nesting. That's fine. Short blocks and bold markers work without any special syntax.

Things that specifically break Telegram formatting and I'd avoid:

  • Indented lists with spaces (they collapse across devices)
  • Mixed markdown in the same line (bold and italic in one word shows as plain text on some clients)
  • Long links without a short label (use [label] instead of pasting the URL)

I also keep messages under 1,000 characters if they're a single report. Longer than that, I split into two messages with a "Part 1/2" prefix. [VERIFY: This is a rule Kiran uses personally — adjust if not.]

Try it once, see if they read more

The reader I tested this on yesterday said, "Oh, that's actually easy to follow." That's the goal. Not "wow, beautiful formatting" — just "I can take this in without re-reading."

If you're the one writing these reports, try reformatting one daily market brief using the structure above. Send it to a colleague who usually doesn't respond. If they reply faster, you've got your pattern.

If you're the one receiving them, forward this to whoever sends them. Say, "Can we try this format tomorrow?" No explanation needed. Let the example do the work.

I don't know yet if this exact structure works for every team. But I know the old one doesn't. And a 10-second fix that gets more of your report read is worth trying.