Telegram, the popular messaging app, is going pay-to-message with a Premium tier subscription service later this month. This isn’t to say the subscription isn’t optional – because it is. The Premium subscription will include “additional features, speed and resources,” according to Telegram founder Pavel Durov.
News of a Premium subscription has been around for quite some time now. It was only last month when we saw some of the possible features coming to a Premium model which leaked through the iOS 8.72 beta.
If you’re an avid Telegram user who doesn’t want to pay any fees, that’s fine. Any features users currently use will remain free. There may even be a few bonuses for those on the free model. But we’ll get to that later.
The founder did offer a hint of what Premium members can expect, such as; early access to new features, more freedom with sending lager files and stickers, and reactions reserved for elite Telegram users.
Remember when we mentioned that free users may have a few bonuses in store? Well, free users will be able to view any file larger than the usual limit, as long as it’s sent by a Premium user. The same goes for custom stickers and reactions. If a Premium user sends a Premium sticker, free users will have no trouble viewing and interacting with it. That’s kind of a bonus.
Why the change?
Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder explained the reason for the change on his own Telegram channel. He said that a Premium subscription will help keep the company afloat in the long run. Seeing as it was only last year when Telegram started earning revenue – it’s now time to make some real money.
The founder went on to say that if a Premium subscription hadn’t come into play, upgrades such as larger file-sharing would be “unmanageable”.
Leaked features
Besides the fact that we know a few of the features coming, there’s still plenty we don’t know yet. But we can get an idea. Nothing here is confirmed, so don’t get too excited just yet. Well, you can get a little excited.
According to data gathered from Telegram’s beta version, we can get a pretty good idea of what to expect when Premium eventually launches. First of all, the data tells us the subscription will cost $5 (R80) per month, which feels reasonable-ish.
Some of the stand-out features from the leak are;
- Double Limits – Letting users join 1000-user channels, have four accounts, more chat folders, etc.
- 4GB upload limits – This one is quite self-explanatory.
- Faster downloads – Media and chat downloads will now be uncapped in terms of speed.
- Ad-Free channels – Public channels will no longer have ads in them.
- More customization – This is a broad spectrum. Premium users will be given access to a much wider range of features like animated profile pictures, unique reactions and stickers and larger bio limits.
At the time of writing, we cannot know when the Premium tier will go live. Since the founder himself confirmed the update recently, we can only hope the update isn’t far from its debut.
Source: The Verge