Telegram Messenger on Monday launched major updates to its application with features like Topics in Groups, Collectible Usernames, and more to enhance the user chat experience,.
Among other features, the platform offers voice-to-text for video messages with dozens of new emoji packs for premium users, according to the company.
"I feel particularly excited about today's Telegram update. It adds topics to large groups, transforming these linear chats into slick mobile-friendly versions of good old Internet Forums," Pavel Durov, Telegram's CEO and Founder, said in a statement.
Topics in Groups
Groups with more than 200 members can now enable "Topics" and create a separate space for any topic so that chats within the group can be easily read.
Topics in Groups | Telegram
"Topics today come packed with lots of features including the ability to close and pin topics, flexible notification options and lots of fun animated emoji to be used as topic icons. Taking advantage of the two-week delay caused by Apple's review, we have begun to expand these new threaded groups into something even more powerful," Durov added.
Collectable Usernames
Users can now assign multiple "Collectible Usernames" to each of their accounts and publicly accessible channels on Telegram, so others can find and contact them easily.
Video to text transcript
Moreover, with "voice-to-text for video messages", video messages can be converted to text, allowing premium users to get an instant text transcript.
Video to text transcript | Telegram
The feature was previously available to premium users to convert any voice message to text, for times when it was more convenient to read than listen along, the company added.
Emojis
Also, the platform introduced 12 new emoji packs for premium users so that they can use these emojis in any message and caption.
Improved night mode for iOS
Telegram has update the dark theme for iOS users with better blurring effects and more balanced colours.
Resizing text on Android
Andorid users can now change the test size in Chat settings. This will change the size of all chats texts including link previews, reply headers and more.
Other changes include new interactive emoji and reactions, swipe left to reply pulsing placeholders and new menu with several call options.
With Inputs from IANS
