Ever since the great WhatsApp exodus of January 2021, you have to imagine that the development team behind Telegram have worked themselves around the clock to cater to the influx of users that rushed its way. There’s been a fairly consistent stream of updates for Telegram lately and every one adds something cool. Case in point, last night the app was updated to host a mess of new features including auto-deleting messages, expiring invitation links, home screen widgets, unlimited member groups and an improved chat import system.
That’s plenty of new features for users to play around with. If you’re feeling a little lost as to what all these are for and what they do, don’t panic! We’ve got you covered, with some brief explanations for how these new features work.
What’s new for Telegram
Auto-Delete Messages: This is a feature that’s become fairly common in many instant-messaging apps so it’s nice to know Telegram finally supports it. This function allows users to delete messages after a certain period thanks to a handy timer feature displayed next to the message in question. You’ll be able to set the timer for 24 hours or 7 days. When it eventually runs out, the message it’s linked to will be deleted for everyone in the conversation. No trace of the message will be left, which sounds kinda suspicious but we’re not about to judge you.
Home Screen Widgets: You can now take those chats you use most frequently and implement them as a shortcut directly on your home screen. It’s a small addition, but nice to have if you’re only using Telegram for one or two groups. This particular feature is much better suited for Android devices for the time being, as Telegram’s blog update specifies that, “On Android, chats and messages in the widget will always be up to date, and you can further expand the widget to take up more of your screen. On iOS, widgets will only get fresh data occasionally and can’t be expanded – this is due to system limitations.” Sorry, Apple fans!
Expiring Invite Links: Users can now send out invite links with certain limitations to maybe prevent some unwanted attention here and there. These include limiting how long an invite link stays active in terms of duration or based on how many people have clicked it. Perfect for controlling the number of people in your groups.
Unlimited Member Groups: This one is actually pretty wild. While Telegram has supported groups with 200,000 members for some time now, that number is being greatly expanded to “unlimited members”. If you want to surpass that previous limit you can now change the group in question to “Broadcast Group”. When this conversion takes place only admins will be allowed to send messages but all members will be able to join voice calls. This is ideal for celebrities that want to keep in touch with hungry fans, we guess.
Improved Chat Import: The worst part of jumping WhatsApp’s ship was losing all the chats that you held near and dear. While Telegram has offered a chat import system for some time now, this version is apparently far more efficient. The latest update will see imported messages sorted by their original date if they’re being added to a Telegram chat that has fewer than 1000 messages or has just recently been made.
Telegram has also added a new reporting system that speeds up the process and new animated emojis for folks who enjoy that kind of stuff. If you want a full breakdown of everything that was included in the latest update you can check the blog announcement here. We don’t know why you’d want to do that, though. We already gave you everything here.