Telegram Messenger is nearly 3 years old but has received substantial updates over time. They updated their bot platform with what they call inline bots, faster loading GIFs, supergroups, channels and others. It is surely growing and the company behind it is not slacking as they introduced a sleuth of new updates for voice messages, secret chats, supergroups and more.
Control over group adds
This is one feature I would want WhatsApp to add to their platform as soon as possible. Well, Telegram has one upped WhatsApp where now you have the power to decide who may add you to a group or channel. This is awesome because it is quite annoying to be randomly added to a group without your consent
Voice Messages
Telegram decided to overhaul the voice message functionality where now voice messages have been given the cool wave visualization and a new player. There is also the raise-to-speak and raise-to-listen functionality where you can record a voice message by raising your device and raise your device to your ear if you want to listen to a voice message.
Another cool thing about the new update is that the voice message that you play will continue to play in the background if you switch back to another chat. (WhatsApp doesn’t have that)
In the case of the raise-to-listen and raise-to-speak functionality, Telegram says it uses sensors found in your phone (gyroscope, accelerometer and proximity sensor) so if your phone doesn’t have those, it might not work properly
Secret Chat
The other core functionality that received a major update was Secret chat which initially was bare bones when compared to normal chats save for the excellent end-to-end encryption.
It has now been updated with link previews, sticker sharing, inline bots, GIF support, replies, photo and video captions just like what we have on normal chats.
Supergroups
As you know, Telegram Messenger supports groups of upto 1000 members, codenamed ”supergroups.” Creators of these supergroups have now been given more control where they can change who may add new members, where the creators have power to make some people administrators of the group.
Additional photo editing tools
This is for Android users where Telegram has added additional photo editing tools (tint, fade, rotate and curves)
Attachment Menu
The attachment menu has been updated where files will zoom when you select them and reorganized image search to the photo/video section
For iOS users
For iOS users, you can now share files to Telegram straight from default apps like Photos, Maps or Contacts and it is possible to share to several chats at once.
iPad users who have connected their devices with keyboards can now navigate around or send messages without touching the screen. (Sounds like a good deal if you have that giant iPad Pro)
