Telegram recently received an update, and this one is bursting with new features and upgrades, many of which are related to video. The first, and arguably most interesting one, is that you can now have up to 1,000 people on one group video call. More is more, we guess.
And if you think 1,000 is a lot, Telegram still isn’t satisfied.
“We will keep increasing this limit until all humans on Earth can join one group call and watch us yodel in celebration (coming soon),” the messaging platform said in an announcement.
The accompanying image indicates that this feature isn’t really for everyday video calls with friends and family, but more for virtual events. For example, some kind of live discussion or podcast-esque show akin to Clubhouse. Maybe even a virtual concert. The possibilities are endless.
Telegram takes videos up a notch
Additionally, it’s revealed something called ‘upgraded video messages’. These are short clips similar to WhatsApp or Instagram stories that you can use to quickly share where you are and what you’re doing. They now have higher resolution and can be expanded in chat and paused, fast-forwarded, and rewound. A neat touch is that users can now record them without pausing their currently playing media, so you can now keep Spotify open to show your friends how well you can lip-sync your favourite songs.
Telegram’s in-app media player is getting playback speed options, so you plough through video lectures at 2x speed or slow them down to 0.5x speed. The same options apply to voice and video messages from friends.
You can also copy time-stamped video links (from, say, YouTube) from one chat to another without losing the stamp. And finally, you can now screen-share with sound still enabled from other apps, which is great for listening to music or watching Netflix with friends virtually.
Aside from video, other updates include the ability to auto-delete messages after a month, more precise drawing on sent media, new animations on your passcode screen and for sending messages, more animated emojis, and a password recovery option that works even if you don’t have a recovery email set up.
Telegram was already an attractive alternative for anyone none-too-pleased with WhatsApp’s latest user privacy shenanigans, and with each new update, it only becomes more enticing.