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Telegram Blue

Telegram · Messaging (2013)

#26A5E4 Brand Tone round

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Color anatomy

The exact scoring color for this Brand Tone card.

HEX: #26A5E4

RGB: 38, 165, 228

HSB: 200°, 83%, 89%

HSL: 200°, 78%, 52%

Nearby tones to compare against

#278BE3

#27BDE3

#42ADE3

#0B9BE3

#218ABF

Why this color matters

The white paper plane is easy to remember; the blue around it is easier to replace with a generic app blue. Telegram's target, #26A5E4, sits on the cyan side of blue without becoming turquoise. The surprising part is that the official downloadable logo does not give its circle one flat colour at all.

A paper message for the cloud

Telegram launched on iOS on 14 August 2013. Its FAQ credits Pavel Durov with financial and ideological support and his brother Nikolai with the technology. Against that digital background, the logo offers something almost childishly physical: a folded sheet of paper in flight. Read as a visual metaphor, the plane gives a message direction and movement without needing a wordmark.

Telegram is a messaging app with a focus on speed and security
Telegram FAQ (excerpt)

The circle contains two blues

The Logo.svg in Telegram's official press download fills the circle with a vertical gradient, from #2AABEE at the top to #229ED9 at the bottom. There is a neat numerical connection to this card: average the endpoints channel by channel, round the RGB result to whole numbers, and you get 38/165/228 — exactly #26A5E4. That makes the target the rounded RGB midpoint of this particular asset, not proof of a universal flat-colour specification.

The exact blue between the endpoints

The scoring colour is HSB(200°, 83%, 89%), rounded to whole numbers. Its hue lies about 20° beyond cyan at 180°, heading towards blue at 240°. Blue is the largest RGB channel, green is substantial, and red is small but present: the result is a vivid, slightly softened cyan-blue. Calling it sky blue can tempt memory towards a washed-out pastel; recalling Facebook can pull the hue away from cyan. Neither memory preserves this balance.

A familiar plane, a different shade

Telegram's press pack includes files labelled Logo_old alongside the current logo. That small archival detail explains why searching for the paper plane can turn up different artwork without revealing a single timeless blue swatch. The white plane and blue circle can suggest open sky and easy movement; those are readings of the design, not documented claims about why its creators chose the colour. For the game, the useful memory is the plane against this cyan-blue field, with the gradient reduced to its midpoint.

Telegram blue, its gradient endpoints and a familiar distraction

#26A5E4Telegram target — rounded RGB midpoint

#2AABEEOfficial logo gradient — lighter top

#229ED9Official logo gradient — darker bottom

#1877F2Facebook card — further towards blue

Quick facts

Target#26A5E4 · RGB 38/165/228 · HSB 200°/83%/89% — Telegram blue
Colour sourceRounded RGB midpoint of the official logo's #2AABEE–#229ED9 gradient
Not interchangeableFacebook's blue or a pale sky blue; the target keeps a distinct cyan lean
First launch14 August 2013 on iOS; the press pack also preserves older logo artwork
Reads aspaper in flight · open sky · a message on its way

Trademark notice

The brand names and logos used in Brand Tone are trademarks of their respective owners. Brand Tone is an independent fan-made color memory game and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any featured brand.