Telegram has finally launched its Premium subscription globally today. The subscription will give you access to a bunch of exclusive features such as 4GB file uploads, new exclusive stickers, faster downloads and more. Apart from this, Telegram also announced a bunch of features that are free to use for everyone and also noted that it now has over 700 million monthly active users without any advertising.
Telegram Premium Features
With Telegram Premium, users unlock doubled limits, faster downloads, exclusive stickers and reactions, improved chat management and a lot more. The subscription costs Rs 469 a month in India. With Telegram Premium, subscribers will now be able to send files up to 4GB in size, compared to 2GB for normal users. Telegram says that all users can download these extra-large documents, regardless of whether they are subscribed to Telegram Premium.
Next, users get faster download speeds so Telegram can consume maximum speeds provided by your ISP while downloading anything. Next, there are doubled limits where you can follow up to 1000 channels, create up to 20 chat folders with up to 200 chats each, add a fourth account to any Telegram app, pin 10 chats in the main list and save up to 10 favourite stickers. All of these are cut by half for free users.
There’s a new vocie-to-text feature launched under Telegram Premium using which voice messages can be converted to text so you don’t have to hear what the message says but see it in writing. Further, there are a bunch full-screen animations, which Premium users can send in any chat. Moreover, these expressive effects that are visible for all users. This premium sticker collection will be updated monthly by Telegram artists, notes the chat app.
Apart from this, there are unique reactions exclusive to premium subscribers, improved chat management where the app always opens on a custom set folder, animated profile pictures visible to everyone in their contacts and chat list, premium badge, premium app icons and finally, no ads.
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Updates for free users
There are a bunch of updates and improvements introduced for free users as well. Public groups now have join requests allowing group admins to review new members before approving them to write in the chat. Next, public figures and organizations can verify their group, channel or bot – receiving a verification badge which shows users that messages are coming from a confirmed source.
Bots on telegram have received improvements such as the ability to add photos in the introduction message from a bot. This update brings improved chat previews for Android so you can scroll through them to view the whole chat without marking it as read. New buttons have been added to let you mark the chat as read, mute it, PIN it or delete it.
Now, Telegram has reintroduced Automatic Saving to Gallery on Android with improvements. Further, when sending large files shared from another app on iOS, you can now watch an animated progress bar. Telegram has also added an animated profile picture creator on macOS so users can make animated profile photos of their choice using photos, stickers, colourful gradients and emojis.
Lastly, this update includes over 100 fixes and optimizations to the mobile and desktop apps. This includes squashing bugs, improved speed, and expanding minor features. iOS users with the latest iPhones and iPads get significantly smoother animations (120 FPS) throughout the app. “Android users will notice better audio and video quality in voice and video messages, along with options to set alternative app icons, clear all recent stickers at once and translate user bios or chat descriptions”, said Telegram.