Sponsored messages requirements in Telegram

A Russian channel called Durov's Code found out about upcoming requirements for sponsored messages in Telegram. The rules are going to be distinctively strict and are aimed to allow only high quality promotions.

Advertising requirements:

• Sponsored messages can contain only text.
• Maximum post length — 160 symbols.
• The post mustn't contain external links.
• Only a single post per channel which is going to be displayed at the bottom after reading all the recent posts of the channel.
• Moderation rules and requirements will be way more strict compared to other platforms.

Assigning a new owner of a group or channel when deleting the previous account

The Telegram Team Twitter account wrote about a new protocol that has been introduced into the messenger, responsible for the transfer of ownership rights over a channel or group chat. This process occurs if the account of their former owner was deleted.

Transfer of rights in channels

• Ownership is transferred to one of the administrators who has permission to publish messages.
• The presence of other rights increases the likelihood of transfer.
• If the administrator cannot publish messages, he won't be able to become the new owner of the channel.

Transfer of rights in groups

• The key factor is the right to add new administrators.
• The presence of other rights increases the chances for the property transfer.
• If there are no administrators left in the group, the participant who joined the chat before the others can become the owner.

The protocol also has nuances: the system may not transfer ownership for security reasons.

Credit: @tginfo

Telegram Group vs Telegram Channel; What's the Difference?

Telegram is one of the most popular instant messaging apps, giving Facebook-owned WhatsApp healthy competition. The app offers almost all the features found in WhatsApp for effective communication. Apart from direct chats with your contacts, you can join two types of communities on Telegram: Telegram Channels and Telegram Groups. They are similar to WhatsApp Groups and Broadcast Lists. Take a look at what these are, how they differ from each other, and which one is best for you.

What Is a Telegram Channel?

A Telegram Channel allows you to broadcast your message to a large number of subscribers.
There are no limitations on how many people can join a Channel, but they cannot interact with each other. Telegram Channel admins are the only ones with the right to post one-way messages.

What Is a Telegram Group?

A Telegram Group, on the other hand, is just like any other messaging app group. All Group participants can communicate with each other in the Group and share multimedia files, while the admin holds the right to restrict member's interaction.

Types of Telegram Channels and Groups

Telegram Channels and Groups can both be public or private. As the name suggests, public Groups and Channels are easily accessible by searching their username in the search bar, while you can join private Groups and Channels only via an invite link. Owners and admins are the only ones with access to the Group joining link.

Telegram Channels vs. Groups: 7 Differences

Now that you're familiar with Telegram Channels and Groups, let's look at a few of their differences...

1. Accessing the Profiles of Your Fellow Members

Telegram Channels are more private when it comes to other members' information since you cannot see their profiles. Even if someone from your contact list belongs to the same Channel, you can't find out. Telegram Groups, on the other hand, are more public in this regard. Whether or not someone is on your contacts list, you can easily access their profile. You can interact with them in the Group and message them privately as well. However, it depends on the privacy settings on the account that you want to connect to.

2. Rights You Have as an Admin

As an admin of a Telegram Channel, you can post any message, add or remove any member from the Channel, and terminate the Channel at any time. Almost no interaction between members means that all you need to do is update your Channel regularly.

However, an increase in member interaction in the Telegram Group increases the workload for admins. You will have to manage spam properly, remove members breaking the rules, respond to members' requests in direct messages, and maintain a healthy environment within your Group. Both Telegram Groups and Channels allow you to change your visibility from anonymous to your username and vice versa.

3. Access to Old Chat History

Every member of the Channel has had access to the whole Channel chat since its creation. In this way, new members can check past conversations and documents if they wish. New members to Telegram Groups can also access old chats. However, the admin can choose to restrict access to prevent new users from accessing older messages.

4. Number of Members

Any Telegram Channel can have an unlimited number of participants, and members are called subscribers. Initially, you can only have 200 members in a Telegram Group, but if you upgrade it to a super group, you can have up to 200000 members.

5. Determining the Engagement

Every message in a Telegram Channel has an eye button at the lower right corner showing how many subscribers have viewed it. Depending on the average message views and subscriber count, you can determine how active a community is. This number is extremely important if you run a branded community and get regular promotional offers from companies and organizations.

As a Telegram Channel administrator, this number gives you a clear picture of your Channel's performance. Based on this metric, you can also plan the growth of your community. On the other hand, it's hard to gauge the engagement of a Group as you cannot determine how many members are actively participating in discussion regularly.

6. Group Joining Notification and Silent Messages

All members are notified when someone joins a Telegram Group; joining a Telegram Channel remains secret and only Channel admins can see. Telegram's Channel administrators can send silent messages to their subscribers, which isn't possible in Groups. Silent messages, as the name implies, are those received without any notification sound. It's handy for sending urgent messages to recipients who are in a different time zone without disturbing them. Simply press the notification bell next to the message box in the Telegram Channel to send a silent message.

7. Getting Feedback

While you can receive feedback from your community via Telegram Groups, but there is no equivalent way to reach your community via Telegram Channels. By discussing an idea with your Group members, you can fine-tune it, which is not possible with your Channel subscribers.

Best Ways to Use Telegram Groups and Channels

Telegram allows you to link your Telegram Channel to the Telegram Group directly. Doing this will automatically post the messages to your Group when you post them on your Channel. This way, you can have discussions with your audience, hear their feedback and enjoy the rest of the Telegram Groups features. Both Telegram Channels and Groups offer a range of features that streamline communication between family, friends, and colleagues.

A Telegram Group will be a good choice if you want to have a casual discussion with your community where everyone can share their opinion. On the other hand, creating a Telegram Channel will serve your needs if you want to limit posting content to yourself.

Telegram Group or Channel? Which One Is Right for You?

Since you can interlink a Group with a Channel and restrict Group activity to make it a Channel, why not try out both to find out which one works best for your community? Telegram keeps on evolving with time with amazing new features. If you are using an older version of Telegram, you should update it to try out the latest features.

Telegram Users Can Now Record Live Streams, New Update Brings Chat Themes, More

Today's update lets you set different themes for individual chats, share your feelings with loved ones using interactive emoji with full screen effects, see detailed read receipts in groups and record video and audio from live broadcasts.

Chat Themes
— Choose one of 8 preset themes for any of your private chats;
— Tap the (⋯) button › "Change Colors" to pick a theme;
— Both chat participants will see the same theme in that chat – on all their devices;
— All chat themes have day and night versions and will follow your overall dark mode settings.

Record Live Streams and Video Chats
— Record video and audio from live broadcasts in your group or channel;
— Admins can start recording from the Settings menu (…);
— Choose between recording in portrait or landscape orientation;
— Finished recordings are sent to the admin's Saved Messages and can be easily shared;
— See that a stream is being recorded from the red dot next to its title.

Read Receipts in Small Groups
— Select one of your outgoing messages in small groups to see who recently viewed it;
— To protect privacy, read receipts are only stored for 7 days after the message was sent.

Interactive Emoji
— Some animated emoji now have fullscreen effects when tapped – like 🎆, 👍, 🎉, 💩, 🎈 and ❤️;
— If your chat partner also has the chat open, they will see the effects when you tap the emoji.

Chat Themes

Telegram has dozens of features to organize your chats and customize their appearance, from Chat Folders to Animated Backgrounds. In this update, coordination and decoration come together with new themes for individual chats.

Our designers created 8 new themes that you can apply to specific private chats. Each of the new themes features colorful gradient message bubbles, beautifully animated backgrounds and unique background patterns.

Both you and your chat partner can choose the theme for both sides and make any conversation easy to recognize, even when you can't find your glasses. This way you can set different themes for chats with co-workers and family members, so you won't accidentally send that video to your boss again.

To set a theme for your chat on Android, tap the Chat Header > ⋮ > Change Colors. On iOS, tap the Chat Header > ⋯ > Change Colors. Your chat partner will see the theme if they are using the latest version of Telegram.

Each theme comes with a day and night version and will follow your app's night mode settings – whether you keep it dark all day, or have your chats follow the sun.

These first 8 themes are just the beginning – our designers are already working on adding more.

Interactive Emoji

We love animating emoji, but there are times when even a big red beating heart – that makes your phone vibrate with each beat! – is simply not enough to express your feelings.

With a little code, a little drawing and a lot of dark magic, we've created a new way of sharing emotion in real time. Send a single      or  to any private chat, then tap on the animated emoji to unleash a fullscreen effect.

If both you and your chat partner have the chat open, the animations and vibrations play simultaneously on your devices, so you feel close even when you're far apart.

Your chat partner will only see the effects if they are using the latest version of Telegram.

Our artists are already back in the dungeons, working on new fullscreen effects for more animated emoji.

Read Receipts in Small Groups

Both chat themes and interactive emoji currently only work in private chats. But this update also includes a big change for groups.

Group messages are marked as read (✓✓) as soon as one other member sees them. In small groups, you can now also select a message you sent to see which group members have read it.

To protect users' privacy, read receipts in groups are only stored for 7 days after the message was sent. It is not Telegram's business to keep a record of everything you've ever seen.

Record Live Streams and Video Chats

Telegram hosts millions of communities that can create live events for unlimited viewers. Whether it's a once-in-a-lifetime concert or an everyday algebra class, admins can now record Live Streams and Video Chats to publish them for those who missed the live version.

Admins can start a recording right from the Live Stream or Video Chat menu – with options to record Video and Audio or Only Audio. To record video, choose an orientation for the final video file, Portrait or Landscape. After you finish recording or end the broadcast, the file is instantly uploaded to your Saved Messages.

Tap ⋮ or ⋯ to open the broadcast menu and start recording. While recording, a red dot appears next to the title of the broadcast.

And that should give you enough things to do until we're back with the next update. As always, it shouldn't take us long.

Fake Vaccination Certificates for India being sold on Telegram

Fake Covid 19 vaccination certificates and fake test results of 29 different countries, including India, are being sold on Telegram, a report by Check Point Research said on Thursday. According to the report, a fake vaccination certificate for India is available at a price of about USD75 (Rs 5,520) each. Oded Vanunu, head (products vulnerability research) at Check Point Software Technologies, said there are people who don't want to take the vaccine but still want the freedoms that come with being vaccinated such as access to places.

"These people are turning to the Darknet and Telegram. Since March 2021, prices for fake vaccination cards have dropped by half and online groups for these fraudulent corona virus services boast followings of hundreds of thousands of people.

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, in India, various state governments have mandated certain regulations for those undertaking inter-state travel by road or air to mitigate the further spread of the virus. Travelers are required to have a negative Covid-19 test result (RT-PCR report) or a vaccination certificate to visit some states that see large influx of tourists.

"In March 2021, the majority of the fake corona virus certificates were advertised on the Darknet. Now, CPR sees a majority of black market activity centered around Telegram. CPR suspects the shift to Telegram has helped sellers scale their distribution efforts, reaching more consumers, faster," the report said.

"Sellers mostly accept payments through PayPal and cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Monero, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and others). In some cases, Steam, Amazon, and eBay gift cards are accepted," the report said. It added that sellers list their method of contact as Telegram, WhatsApp, email, Wickr, and Jabber.

Information and Broadcasting Ministry Launches Account on Telegram for Fact-checking

The Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry on Tuesday launched its account on social media platform Telegram to counter fake news. It was launched as 'PIB Fact Check', which is one of the few government entities to have a telegram channel, and aims to verify information related to the Center and disseminate to its subscribers.

"Earlier, fake channels were being run on Telegram in the name of fact check. PIB, along with telegram, got these fraudulent channels removed," said ministry sources. PIB Fact Check is the only central government fact-checking arm, which was established in November 2019.

Telegram was fined about $120,000

The Russian court fined Telegram another $120,000. This is caused by the refusal to remove illegal content, which is subject to restriction in accordance with the law. Thus, the amount of fines imposed by Telegram in Russia for refusing to remove prohibited content amounted to $480,000.

Telegram Bot Video Streaming - Host On Heroku, Railway & Qovery

Telegram bot to stream videos in telegram voice chat for both groups and channels. Supports live steams, YouTube videos and telegram media.

SUPPORT

SUPPORT CHANNEL: @subin_works

SUPPORT GROUP: @InFoTelGroup

Features

• Playlist, queue.
• Supports Play from Youtube Playlist.
• Change VoiceChat title to current playing song name.
• Supports Live streaming from youtube
• Play from telegram file supported.
• Starts the startup stream automatically on startups and restarts.
• Automatically downloads audio for the first two tracks in the playlist to ensure smooth playing
• Automatic restart even if heroku restarts.
• Support exporting and importing playlist.

REPO: https://github.com/subinps/VCPlayerBot

Heroku Config Vars:

Website: https://heroku.com

1. ADMINS: @TGIdsBot
2. API_HASH & API_ID: my.telegram.org/apps
3. BOT_TOKEN: @BotFather
4. CHAT: @TGIdsBot
5. LOG_GROUP: @TGIdsBot
6. SESSION_STRING: TGsession.infotelbot.com
7. STARTUP_STREAM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkNeIUgNPQ8

Important Note: We should create only one bot in heroku app account, otherwise the bot will not work. If you want to create more bots then you should create separate heroku app account or renew with premium membership by giving money.

Railway Config Vars:

Website: https://railway.app

1. API_HASH & API_ID: my.telegram.org/apps
2. BOT_TOKEN: @BotFather
3. CHAT: @TGIdsBot
4. SESSION_STRING: TGsession.infotelbot.com
5. LOG_GROUP: @TGIdsBot
6. ADMINS: @TGIdsBot
7. STARTUP_STREAM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkNeIUgNPQ8

Warning: Railway.app may ban your railway account if you tried to play DMCA contents. Its is hereby forewarned that we wont be responsible for any loss caused to you. Proceed at your own risk.

Qovery Config Vars:

Website: https://www.qovery.com

1. ADMINS: @TGIdsBot
2. API_HASH & API_ID: my.telegram.org/apps
3. BOT_TOKEN: @BotFather
4. CHAT: @TGIdsBot
5. LOG_GROUP: @TGIdsBot
6. SESSION_STRING: TGsession.infotelbot.com
7. STARTUP_STREAM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkNeIUgNPQ8

Note

Note To A So Called Dev:
Kanging this codes and and editing a few lines and releasing a V.x of your repo wont make you a Developer. Fork the repo and edit as per your needs.

Changing the Theme for Individual Chats - Telegram Beta

In Telegram for Android 8.0.1 Beta, you can change the theme for individual chats. In private messages, each participant can change the theme and it will change for both sides. In groups and channels, the administrator changes the topic for everyone. Chat participants and channel subscribers can also change the theme, but only for themselves, locally, for this you need to click on the service notification about changing the chat theme. At the moment, the theme changing button is only available in personal chats, but it doesn't change the theme due to server restrictions. It will be enabled closer to the release.

The Call Button in Profile Header - Telegram Beta

In Telegram for Android 8.0.1 Beta, the call button moved from the context menu to the profile header. There is still no confirmation before the call.

Who Read my Message in the Telegram Group Chat - Telegram Beta

In Telegram for Android 8.0.1 Beta, you can find out who read the message in the group from now on. Voice and video messages will receive a list of those who not just saw them in the chat, but also who played and viewed them. Unlike macOS, the Android client allows you to view the list of viewers even at the service message about the beginning of a voice chat.

Telegram Facing $220,000 in Fines from Russian Authorities

Western social media giants Telegram, Facebook and Twitter will be called into a Moscow court this month where they will face fines of nearly $1 million for refusing to remove "prohibited content," Russian media reported Saturday.

The companies will face a total of nine administrative offenses during a hearing to held in the Tagansky district of Moscow on Sept. 14, the government news agency Tass reported.

Under the charges, Facebook is facing five charges and is looking at a possible fine of around $550,000 while Twitter and Telegram face two charges each with possible fines totaling more than $400,000.

Telegram 8.0 Update Allows Unlimited Viewers to Watch Live stream

Telegram was launched just over 8 years ago and today we are continuing our tradition of monthly updates with version 8.0. This update brings live streams with unlimited viewers to groups and channels, options to remove captions from media and hide sender names when forwarding, an easy way to jump to the next unread channel without going back to your chat list, an improved sticker panel, new animated emoji and more.

Unlimited Live Streams

Our previous update made Group Video Calls a powerful tool for live broadcasts — and now their audience is unlimited (except by the popularity of your channel, or the population of Earth, whichever is more relevant in your case).

Start a Live Stream in a channel or a Video Chat in a group – both now support unlimited viewers. The power to run your own TV station is here, right in your pocket.

To begin, tap 'Video Chat' (in Groups) or 'Live Stream' (in Channels) on the profile page of a community where you are an admin.

The viewers of your Live Stream can also raise their hand and join your broadcast if you allow them to speak.

Flexible Forwarding

Forwarding has become a much more relaxing experience. Tap the 'Forward Message' label above the message bar to open a preview window, showing how the messages will look when they are sent – along with several customization options.

You can choose to hide the sender's name or hide captions on media messages. You can also deselect messages you don't want to send or change the recipient if you tapped the wrong chat.

Jump to Next Channel

There are millions of one-to-many channels on Telegram that users follow for news, events, and content.

To keep up with the news easily, you can now scroll through the channels you follow without going back to your chat list. When you reach the bottom of a channel, pull up to go to the next unread channel.

If you have organized your chat list with Folders or Archived Chats, the app will follow the structure you have set up: channels in the current folder, then within each folder, then those left in All Chats and the Archive. Simply open a channel from your Studies folder to read them all without getting distracted by Memes — and vice versa.

Trending Stickers

Thanks to an open platform and thousands of free, high-quality stickers in the sticker directory, there's a perfect sticker for every situation. This update makes it easier to find the one.

Trending Stickers are now shown above ‘Recently Used’ in your sticker panel. Tap 'Add' to save a pack for the future — the trending sticker section is one of the few things in this world that gets updated more often than the Telegram apps.

When you scroll through your packs at the top of the panel, the thumbnails expand and show the names of your sticker packs.

Telegram for Android also got larger previews for sticker suggestions. To get suggestions, enter one emoji in the input field. To see more suggested stickers, pull upward on the suggestions panel.

If you have a particular thing in mind and don't have it among your sets, type a word in the search field to find matches from the sticker directory. Try 'yellow', 'animal', 'dog', etc.

Choosing a Sticker

Similar to 'typing…' or 'recording a voice message', the apps now show a 'choosing a sticker' status at the top of the chat — so you know that your chat partner is still there, just looking for the perfect animated response.

Unread Comment Counters

Many channels have comments enabled for their posts so that subscribers can interact and share their thoughts. We've recently had a great chance to test this with thousands of birthday wishes — thank you all for your support.

Just like with chats, when you open a comment thread that has new messages, a counter will now appear showing the number of unread comments.

New Animated Emoji

This month we asked ourselves: “Should we stop animating more and more emoji with each update?” After a heated discussion we arrived at this answer: “Probably not.” Send a message with a single emoji to get one of these new masterpieces in a chat:

That's it for today — and we already have some cool stuff in development for the next update. See you there!

August 31, 2021
The Telegram Team

Telegram Crosses 1 Billion Downloads Globally, With India as the Largest Market

Telegram has become the latest app to surpass the mark of one billion downloads globally, according to data shared by Sensor Tower. The Dubai-headquartered app, which was launched in late 2013, surpassed the milestone on Friday, the mobile insight firm told TechCrunch. As is the case with the app’s chief rival, WhatsApp, India is the largest market for Telegram. The world’s second-largest internet market represents approximately 22% of its lifetime installs, Sensor Tower said.

“[India is] followed by Russia and Indonesia, which represent about 10% and 8% of [all installs], respectively. The app’s installs accelerated in 2021, reaching about 214.7 million installs in the first half of 2021, up 61% year-over-year from 133 million in H1 2020,” it added.

It’s worth noting that the number of installs doesn’t equate to the app’s active userbase. Telegram had about 500 million monthly active users as of early this year, for instance. But the surge in downloads, which coincides with WhatsApp’s poor handling of relaying its privacy policies to its massive userbase, nonetheless suggests that Telegram has enjoyed some additional attention in recent quarters.

Telegram, which earlier this year raised over $1 billion, is the fifteenth app worldwide to have been downloaded 1 billion times or more, Sensor Tower told TechCrunch. Other apps on the list include WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Spotify and Netflix, according to Sensor Tower. (Mobile research firms don’t track the installs of most Google apps that come pre-installed on Android devices.)

Advertising from Telegram or new tools for channel admins?

In Telegram for Android and macOS Beta, you can see a new type of message: "sponsored". The message is very similar to the advertising that was previously promised Pavel Durov, but in fact it may also be a tool for buying and selling advertising in Telegram channels.

Telegram v8.0.0 Beta Version Released; Video Recoding, Hide Sender Name

The new build gets the number 8.0 and quite a few changes. First of all, the messenger has added a news feed. It means that all incoming messages from the channels will now be in one place. Also, the developers have added the Sponsored tags to promotional posts, the ability to search for GIFs using emoji, message animations with four different gradients, and forwarding messages without an author.

Another interesting feature is the ability to record videos of different formats in voice chats. In addition videos can be in portrait or landscape orientation.

Video Recording in Voice Chat

In Telegram for Android 8.0 Beta, you can record videos in video calls. Recording can be done in two modes: portrait and horizontal.Currently, due to server restrictions, video recording doesn't work.

Hide Sender's Name

In another words, forward without quotes. The well known feature in unofficial clients is now coming to official client. Just tap on the forward header above input box while forwarding message for hiding the sender/author name

Message bubbles animation 

In Telegram for Android 8.0 Beta now you can see the animation of message bubbles. Also, you can set a gradient on the message bubbles as well as on the background, including from 3 to 4 colors, which activates the bubble animation while sending messages.

Animated emojis for GIF tab

In Telegram for Android 8.0 Beta, emojis that displays emotions for GIF animations have become animated.

Channel posts feed

In Telegram for Android 8.0 Beta, you can quickly switch to the next unread channel. After reading the channel completely, you should make a second swipe up.

Updated design of sticker preview

In Telegram for Android 8.0 Beta, the the sticker selection design after entering an emoji was updated.

Upcoming Telegram version 7.10 update

Telegram for Android developers updated source code of the app. Based on it, we made a list of future changes.

What's new:

• After you reach the end of a channel, an extra swipe will open next unread channel. Currently it's unknown what name will be assigned to the feature.
• Record video in voice chats in either horizontal or vertical orientation.
• Trending packs in the sticker chooser pane.
• An option to forward messages without specifying the author of the original message.
• (Not sure yet) animated gradient for message bubbles, just like background one.

Slow mode in the chat In Telegram X

Slow mode in the chat In Telegram X for Android 0.23.11.1423 Beta, you can set the slow mode in the chat.

Telegram X Local Update

In Telegram X for Android 0.23.11.1423 Beta, you can update the application bypassing the app store. You can download the APK on the @tgx_log channel. To verify the authenticity of the APK, you can use the @tgx_bot bot.

Telegram X for Android has been updated to version 0.23.11.1423 Beta

What's new:

— Added support for local updates bypassing the app store.
— Added ability to set up a slow mode in a group chat.
— The active sessions item is displayed on the "Settings" page.
— Added the "Save to music" button for the player.
— The assembly of native libraries on cmake has been rewritten.
— Added work on reproducible builds.
— Updated CameraX and other libraries.
— Support for the latest version of TDLib.
— Completely redesigned the processing of internal links.
— Added support for tg://settings links and other types.
— Added automatic build and notifications in @tgx_log.
— Preparation for the developer competition.
— Added transition to AGP 7.0.1
— Other changes.

Error correction:
— No date for uploading profile photos (further than the first one).
— Operation of the "Beginning" button when searching for messages by date.
— Operation of the "Set as current" and "Delete" buttons for old profile images.
— Other fixes.