Telegram Alpha

Volunteer Support accounts across regions are now being assigned a star badge next to their name which means they're being going Premium (which never expires perhaps). ℹ️ @tlgrmalpha

I love my work. What could be more exciting than improving the way hundreds of millions of people communicate? Members of our team, myself included, must be some of the luckiest people alive. The only thing that we find discouraging is that we're often unable to distribute the new versions of Telegram due to the obscure "review process" imposed on all mobile apps by the tech monopolies. For example, our upcoming update – which is about to revolutionize how people express themselves in messaging – has been stuck in Apple's "review" for two weeks, without explanation or any feedback provided by Apple. If Telegram, one of the top 10 most popular apps globally, is receiving this treatment, one can only imagine the difficulties experienced by smaller app developers. It's not just demoralizing: it causes direct financial losses to hundred of thousands of mobile apps globally. This harm goes on top of the 30% tax Apple and Google take from app developers – which, according to them, is supposed to pay for the resources needed to review apps. The regulators in the EU and elsewhere are slowly starting to look into these abusive practices. But the economic damage that has already been inflicted by Apple on the tech industry won't be undone.

In a first instance, Telegram has verified a user account. Right now, we do not know if that was by mistake or whether that is a test account (by no means does it appear so). #Telegram #Verification

Telegram Beta for Android has been updated to v8.9.0 (2725) List: 1. Privacy settings for voice messages. 2. Animated Emoji (disabled). 3. Premium badge in group chats (disabled). 4. Some premium related features (like gifting). List will be edited as new features are known...

Telegram Beta for Android has been updated to v8.9.0 (2725). • Some changes regarding the UI layout were observed. From the earlier layout which was spead throughout the screen, now is put in a box where user has to slide to find different types. Does the empty space on the top right mean something? • Animated Emojis are here! But, they require premium subscription. These emojis will be animated in text box (seperate from the normal, sticker sized emojis). #TelegramBeta #Android @tlgrmalpha

Telegram Beta for Android has been updated to v8.9.0 (2725) and here we find a new option in Privacy and Security settings where a user can set restrictions on who can send them 'Voice Messages', something many people had been asking for. As of now, this seems to be a premium feature (the lock). The feature is under development. #TelegramBeta @tlgrmalpha

@PremiumBot is now enabled.

👀 @PremiumJoinBot.

Some changes are made to Telegram's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy with respect to Telegram Premium subscription. The changes can be accessed here: 1. Terms of Service for Telegram Premium. 2. Changes to the privacy policy reflect the processing of data when a user uses the Transcription service as of now.

Telegram's premium subscription will cost a little extra if purchased via Apple's App Store due to the commissions charged on payments as Pavel described on his channel earlier (accessible here). There will be an option to purchase/subscribe to Telegram Premium bypassing the payments on App Store or Play Store via @PremiumBot which is now verified. You can subscribe to premium using this Bot only from the official Telegram clients for now. It has a new GIF animation of the Premium Icon which is currently visible only from the latest Telegram Beta app. If you try sending /start command from any other Telegram app apart from the latest Telegram Beta, it will tell you "Unfortunately, this feature is not available in your app version." Right now, sending the /start command from Telegram Beta doesn't elicit any reply for now. In the bot's description, it says "This bot can help you subscribe for Telegram Premium."

Telegram Web provides an extraordinary experience on desktops, but it also works great on mobile devices. It is prevented, however, of reaching native-app-level quality on iOS, because Apple limits web developers in terms of what they can do on iPhones and iPads. In April, the developer of Telegram Web K shared a 10-point list of issues in the iOS Safari browser that Apple has been unwilling to fix or improve for years. Check it here for technical details. We suspect that Apple may be intentionally crippling its Web apps to force its users to download more native apps where Apple is able to charge its 30% commission (I wrote about why it is harmful here). Fortunately, regulators have started to realise what is going on. This week, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), a UK regulator, concluded:

"Apple bans alternatives to its own browser engine on its mobile devices; a restriction that is unique to Apple. The CMA is concerned this severely limits the potential for rival browsers to differentiate themselves from Safari (for example, on features such as speed and functionality) and limits Apple’s incentives to invest in its browser engine.

This restriction also seriously inhibits the capability of web apps – apps that run on a browser rather than having to be individually downloaded – depriving consumers and businesses of the full benefits of this innovative technology."

I think it's an accurate summary and and hope that regulatory action will follow soon. It's sad that, more than ten years after Steve Job's death, a company that once revolutionized mobile web turned into its most significant roadblock.

Since the day Telegram was launched almost 9 years ago, we've been giving our users more features and resources than any other messaging app. A free app as powerful as Telegram was revolutionary in 2013 and is still unprecedented in 2022. To this day, our limits on chats, media and file uploads are unrivaled. And yet, many have been asking us to raise the current limits even further, so we looked into ways to let you go beyond what is already crazy. The problem here is that if we were to remove all limits for everyone, our server and traffic costs would have become unmanageable, so the party would be unfortunately over for everyone. After giving it some thought, we realized that the only way to let our most demanding fans get more while keeping our existing features free is to make those raised limits a paid option. That's why this month we will introduce Telegram Premium, a subscription plan that allows anyone to acquire additional features, speed and resources. It will also allow users to support Telegram and join the club that receives new features first. 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: for example, they will be able to view extra-large documents, media and stickers sent by Premium users, or tap to add Premium reactions already pinned to a message to react in the same way. While our experiments with privacy-focused ads in public one-to-many channels have been more successful than we expected, I believe that Telegram should be funded primarily by its users, not advertisers. This way our users will always remain our main priority.

Telegram Premium will have all these features in it. The monthly cost is $4.99.

🔵 Beta 8.7.2 (2680) • Direct 8.7.4 (2636) • Store 8.7.4 (2636) Beta | Store | @TAndroidAPK | @tgfiles ‼️ FYI: Providing issues without details and steps to reproduce and report same thing over and over again will lead to a ban in this chat. ⚠️ Rules and How to report general bug t.me/tgbetachat/5 You can use this template and check this example or here ℹ️ Getting Log Files from Telegram WHAT’S NEW: • Scrollable Chat Preview • New settings option "Stickers and Emoji" • New mark as read symbol • New App Icon Customization • Translation For Bios • New Save To Gallery Options In Data Storage Settings • Emoji Loading Placeholder Animation • New preview packs design • New Sticker Preview Options • Who Can Send New Messages In Discussion Groups (Disabled Server-Side) • New Image Flip Animation In Media Editor • Hashtag, Inline Animation, Emoji List Animation • New Switch Vibration #pin

There is also a new chat opening animation (tested during forwards, when chats are not cached).

Telegram Web Z was updated to version 1.47 👏 Harder • This update adds a Passcode Lock feature, giving Telegram users the most private and secure experience of any web app. To add a passcode, go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Passcode Lock. • When the app is locked, it encrypts its data, including your chats, text messages, contacts, and your session keys – making it impossible to access them without the code. By adding a passcode, users on shared PCs no longer need to log out to protect their privacy. • Remember the passcode you set, you will need to log out and back in to your account if you forget it. 🤩 Better • Media Viewer now supports native zoom and pan gestures with a trackpad or Magic Mouse. • Statistics now include data about Public Shares for posts. • Improvements and tweaks for Group and Channel Statistics. 🚀 Faster • Optimizations for the rendering engine. 💪 Stronger • Various fixes for code syntax highlighting, including support for C#. @webztalks

Telegram shipped another historic update this past weekend. In addition to features that redefine the boundaries of what a messaging app can do (never before have bots been so powerful or notification options so flexible), we introduced half a dozen other improvements. Among them is support for more languages in message translations (to turn on the Translate button, head to Settings > Languages). We recognize that Telegram has become the main source of information from Ukraine, and we hope that the tools we provide can help inform more people and save more lives. To ease the work of journalists around the world, all public channel posts in Ukrainian now always offer the translate button by default.