Telegram has reached 700 million users active user worldwide, and the company has introduced ‘Telegram Premium’, as promised. The subscription service will offer exclusive additional features to users such as doubled limits, improved chat management, faster downloads and more.
To start with, Telegram is introducing a number of exclusive features for subscribers of Telegram Premium:
4GB file uploads and faster downloads
While free users can upload files that are up to 2GB in size, premium users can upload files that are up to 4GB in size. Premium users will also be able to download media and files at the fastest possible speed.
Doubled Limits for nearly everything
Premium subscribers 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.
Subscribers can also favourite up to 400 GIFs, reserve up to 20 public t.me links, and write a longer bio.
Improved chat management and Voice-to-Text
Telegram Premium will offer the ability change the default chat folder so the app always opens on a custom folder, for example Unread instead of All chats.
Premium users can also read a transcript of the voice messages sent to them, in case they aren’t in a situation where they can listen.
Unique stickers and reactions
As expected, Telegram Premium users will have access to a premium sticker collection with full-screen animations that will get updated every month. They will also get access to more text reaction emoji.
Animated profile pictures and premium badges
Animated profile pictures of premium users will show up throughout the app including in chats and the chat list. To show their support for Telegram, premium users will also get a special badge next to their name in the chat list, chat headers, and member lists in groups
No ads
Lastly, premium users will not be shown ads in Public channels.
Free features
While all the above features are available to Premium users, Telegram will continue development of features for free users. The latest update adds a couple of new features, which include the following:
- Admins can enable join requests and review new members before approving them to write in the chat
The feature can be accessed by going to Group Info →Edit →Group Type → Who Can Send Messages →select Only Members →enable Approve New Members.
- There is support for a verification badge for Public figures and organizations for their group, channel or bot. The criteria to verified is to that you need to be verified on at least two social networks.
- Bots on Telegram have been improved with the ability to take quizzes, accept payments and even replace whole websites.
- Chat previews have been improved for Android users, with the ability to view the whole chat without marking it as read.
- For android users, saving media to the gallery automatically can be toggled for chats with users, groups or channels.
- For iOS users, uploading files from another app will now show an animated progress bar.
- Nearly 100 other fixes and optimizations have been made to the mobile and desktop apps. On iOS and iPadOS, 120fps support has been added throughout the app, Android users will experience better audio and video quality in voice and video messages and there is an option to translate user bios or chat descriptions.
These features will become available through an update that is rolling out gradually to all users. Currently, Telegram Premium is accessible on iOS, priced at $5/month for U.S. users. For users in India, the price is Rs. 469 per month. It should become available to all platforms soon.