Optional Phone Address Book Deletion: You might also get a prompt asking if you want to delete them from your device's native phone address book. If you agree, they'll be gone from there too.
Chat History Remains: Crucially, deleting a contact does not delete your chat history with them. That conversation will remain in your chat list until you specifically delete the chat itself.
Their Account is Not Affected: It doesn't affect their Telegram account in any way.
2. Ensure You Have Their Phone Number:
To "recover" the contact, you must telegram number database have their phone number available.
Most Common Case: The number is still in your phone's native address book, even if you deleted them from Telegram.
Alternative: You have the number written down, saved in another app, or you remember it.
3. Method 1: Re-add to Your Phone's Address Book (If Deleted There)
If you deleted the contact from both Telegram and your phone's address book, start by putting them back into your phone's contacts:
Create a new contact entry.
Enter their correct phone number (including the full country code) and their name.
Save the contact.
4. Method 2: Let Telegram Re-sync (If "Sync Contacts" is Enabled)
After you've re-added the contact to your phone's address book (as in Method 1), Telegram should automatically detect them again during its next sync cycle.
They should then reappear in your Telegram contact list within a few minutes.