Telegram Alpha

As promised, we've launched the ability to buy Telegram usernames on a dedicated platform – Fragment. Auctions for the most valuable usernames are already live, so make sure to check it out. In a few days, we will also introduce the ability for users to sell their existing usernames on Fragment. For the first time in the history of social media, a fair, transparent market for usernames is established. Finally people will have ownership over their social media addresses, secured in the immutable ledger of a decentralized blockchain network. This is just the beginning, and yet an important milestone – the power has started to shift into users' hands.

THE WAIT IS OVER! 🥳🥳🥳 You can now buy short recognizable @usernames for personal accounts, public groups and channels. The auction for the best usernames is live on Fragment: https://fragment.com The ownership of these collectible usernames is secured in the immutable ledger of TON, a fast and scalable blockchain network. Owners can add multiple username aliases to their personal account, group or channel. Each collectible name can be accessed with its @username on Telegram, or outside Telegram using links such as username.t.me and t.me/username.

Sending messages on behalf of channel in comments and group chats will now be limited to Premium Subscribers only. Why? Because after the feature was released, scams and spams skyrocketed as scammers posting on behalf of channels made them more anonymous. Limiting it to paying subscribers will hopefully reduce this menace, as put by a developer. "Not to worry though: all existing features remain free, and there are plenty of new free features coming. Moreover, even users who don't subscribe to Telegram Premium will be able to enjoy some of its benefits..."

Signal Messenger is now working on stories with an option to disable it. Not promoting, but... P. S: I'm not a fan of stories or status.

Hackers could have full access (!) to everything on the phones of WhatsApp users. This was possible through a security issue disclosed by WhatsApp itself last week. All a hacker had to do to control your phone was send you a malicious video or start a video call with you on WhatsApp. You are probably thinking "Yeah, but if I updated WhatsApp to the latest version, I am safe, right"? Not really. A WhatsApp security issue exactly like this one was discovered in 2018, then another in 2019 and yet another one in 2020 (tap each year's link to see the corresponding vulnerability). And yes, in 2017 before that. Prior to 2016, WhatsApp didn't have encryption at all. Every year, we learn about some issue in WhatsApp that puts everything on their users' devices at risk. Which means it's almost certain that a new security flaw already exists there. Such issues are hardly incidental – they are planted backdoors. If one backdoor is discovered and has to be removed, another one is added (read the post "Why WhatsApp will never be secure" to understand why). It doesn't matter if you are the richest person on earth – if you have WhatsApp installed on your phone, all your data from every app on your device is accessible, as Jeff Bezos found out in 2020. That's why I deleted WhatsApp from my devices years ago. Having it installed creates a door to get into your phone. I'm not pushing people to switch to Telegram here. With 700M+ active users and 2M+ daily signups, Telegram doesn't need additional promotion. You can use any messaging app you like, but do stay away from WhatsApp – it has now been a surveillance tool for 13 years.

Yesterday, at the request of Apple, we blocked several Belarusian-related Russian-language channels on the iPhone / iPad with a total of 80,000 subscribers. The administrators of several other similar channels with a total of 50,000 subscribers received warnings from our team that they were violating Apple's policies. Channel administrators should take such warnings as seriously as possible and try to do everything possible so that the violations committed do not recur. Otherwise, their channels will inevitably be blocked in Telegram versions distributed through the App Store and Google Play. Fleeing to other mobile apps will not help them avoid access restrictions, as any other mobile app, just like Telegram, will be required to comply with the rules of the app stores. At best, offending channels will remain available in web and Telegram versions downloaded directly from telegram.org. However, this will not affect those channels that violate the rules of Telegram itself, and not the rules of Apple or Google. For example, yesterday, after a repeated violation, we were forced to remove a Russian-language channel that called for "cutting" and "shooting" unarmed defenseless people. After our moderators hid the problematic post and sent a notification to the channel administrators about the inadmissibility of such content, the channel owners republished the same message with a screenshot of the warning they received. You should never do this - Telegram rules expressly prohibit public calls for violence. Repeated violation almost inevitably leads to the removal of the channel. @durov writes in his Russian channel @durov_russia | link. @tlgrmalpha

Login via email or Google/Apple Sign-in This feature is available only to those users who frequently login so that the codes in the future are sent via email or you can login via Google/Apple account. Some users (mostly who have trouble with receiving the login codes) are trying to activate this feature. I'd like you to please note that logging out frequently just to login again and find this feature will lock you out from your account after a fixed number of tries. Instead, I'd suggest them to not try this more than thrice a day because you'll have to wait for complete 24 hours for the lockout to clear. Alternatively, you can also keep another session where you can access the account when trying so that you can access the account meanwhile.

Infinite Reactions, Emoji Statuses and Much More https://telegram.org/blog/infinite-reactions-statuses

Telegram Web Z was updated to version 1.51 👏 Harder • Custom Animated Emoji: Messages with custom emoji are now viewable. • Gifting Telegram Premium: Premium users can send friends, family, and coworkers a prepaid subscription from their profile for 3, 6, or 12 months – at a discount. • Privacy Settings for Voice Messages: Control who can send you voice and video messages with Telegram Premium. 🚀 Faster • Increased download speed. • Optimized Premium modal. 💪 Stronger • Fixed ‘No File’ error when downloading media. • Fixed issues with hiding video controls. • Various RTL layout fixes. • Fixed scrolling with mouse wheel inside horizontal containers. • Fixed jumping text cursor on Windows. • Fixed display problems with the ‘Next’ button in payments. • Fixed voting in polls on mobile devices triggering a quick reaction. • Fixed page reload when rotating device during a call. • Fixed hanging calls after signing out. • Fixed copying message content and removed the ‘Report’ option in scheduled messages. • Small fixes and improvements for bots running web apps. @webztalks Custom Emoji are live on WebK – view only at the moment, making all related "unsupported message" entities gone for you. The Redesigned ESG (aka Emoji • Stickers • GIFs) panel is coming within the next several days. @WebK_en

Until recently, 70% of all Telegram usernames had been reserved in inactive channels by cybersquatters from Iran. This created a graveyard of dead usernames that cluttered search results and prevented millions of Telegram users from selecting appropriate public addresses for their accounts, groups and channels. Users who wanted to acquire these reserved usernames often received no response or ended up being scammed. Fortunately, this situation has started to change. In mid-August, we withdrew all public Telegram addresses linked to channels that were empty or inactive for the last year. We will gradually reintroduce 99% of these addresses into public use, this time with algorithmic and geolocation limitations so that more users, and not just a select few, can benefit. As for the highest-valued short usernames, the most efficient and fair way to distribute them seems to be by the auction I mentioned in my previous post. This way, those who acquire these catchy links will be motivated to put them to good use and bring value to our users with original content hosted at recognizable t.me addresses. I don't doubt that those who hoarded Telegram usernames are disappointed, but this change will benefit the vast majority of our users. I look forward to seeing how millions of great Telegram addresses will be revived and finally start serving our community. P.S. In anticipation of the things to come, today we are adding support for dedicated links like username.t.me for every username on Telegram (in addition to t.me/username). These web sites are already functional in any browser.