Russian court fines Google, Telegram

A Moscow court on Monday ordered fresh fines for US tech giant Google and Russian-founded encrypted messaging service Telegram, accusing the companies of not removing illegal content. Telegram was fined four million rubles (49,440 euros) and Google two million rubles, the court's press service said on its Telegram channel. It did not disclose the exact nature of their offences.

Russia has piled fines on the world's biggest tech companies in recent months, with authorities accusing them of not moderating their content properly and interfering in the country's affairs. Facebook, Twitter, Google and other foreign tech giants have received fines of up to tens of millions of rubles in recent years. Telegram, was founded by Russian brothers Pavel and Nikolai Durov, who are based outside the country.

Telegram X Android updated to stable version

Telegram X Android updated to stable version 0.24.2.1471

What's new:
- Multi-pins in chats.
- Invite links 2.0.
- Improved Instant View.
- New notification settings.
- Album support for audio and files.
- Compressor for sending video.
- Slow mode and auto delete in chats.
- Transfer of owner's rights by channel, chat, bot.
- Support for background links t.me/bg/...
- Improved active sessions and QR code logins.
- Built-in player for more sites.
- Many other things not mentioned in the list.

Fixed:
- Lack of archive in the filter list.
- Fixes for the chat list.
- Request to work with geolocation on Android 11+.
- Crashes while listening to .flac.
- Duplication in the list of group administrators.
- Lack of upload date for some photos.
- Some media could be duplicated in albums.
- The "Begin" button might not work in some cases when searching for messages by date.
- Lots of other fixes not mentioned in this list

Since you've read the entire change log up to this point, I may assume you might want to know a little bit more, or get a hint of what to expect next, like you do so from post-credit scenes in popular movies.

Bringing this update, including writing this change log and making the demos, required me to battle with a deep burnout and going through countless sleepless nights over again. This is the main reason why beta version has received over a hundred of updates, but it's been a long while since the stable one got one.

This year I've been coming up and experimenting with different ideas that might allow the app to survive even after I'm gone. Even though without burnout it would be much easier and faster, several required steps are finished and are mentioned in this change log. I hope you will be able to see them all before I really do so.

There's no big team behind creation of Telegram X. There is a wizard working on TDLib and many brave ones doing magic with Telegram servers on which it relies. But behind the app itself, since more than 6 years of its creation in April 2015, even though millions of people have used the app, more than 325,000 people subscribed to beta, and entire community with over 4,000 volunteer testers has grown around it, on another end there's always been just a couple chat admins who helped sorting out feedback and bug reports, and just one person resolving all of them, trying at the same time to bring joy through little details and animations to a few people who might notice them.

In spring 2020, when exactly 5 years have passed since the first development crunch that created the first version of the app, things stopped working the same way they used to. I didn't quit, and never stopped working. Moreover, whenever I tried to have a break or some rest, I couldn't relax at all, so I had to yet give up on this idea.

Even though I haven't recovered, in the end I've managed to create several things that allow improving the development process and ended up publishing this yet another stable release, including writing this change log.

Meanwhile, a couple months ago new young developer has joined this one-person team, and some of the features in this update are based on his pull requests. I hope one day this development process will become as public as possible, and it will bring everyone an opportunity to hop in and hop out of it anytime, without sacrificing healthy life and interrupting the process of creating new updates.

But it should be clear it's not an easy task to achieve in an instant: few things still have to be done before that, and properly building the team and managing such community isn't compatible with bringing new features, investigating and fixing issues, and writing the change logs by the same person at the same time (especially when it's the one out of life energy).

There's a big story behind each of the updates, and I apologise that this one took so long. While you may, as always, want to see more features, I hope you will find something new to enjoy in this update.

Read more about this update in the article: telegra.ph/Telegram-X-11-08

Telegram November 2021 Android Contest

Prize fund: $50,000

Deadline: 23:59 on November, 15 (Dubai Time)
Results: November, 18

Task: Implement new features in Telegram for Android based on the mockups provided.

Conditions:
• This contest in only open for Russian-speaking developers. Nationality is not important, but you must be fluent in Russian to participate.
• Everyone is welcome to participate, even if they didn't take part in our previous contests.
• Authors of the best submissions may get a chance to join the Telegram team.
• There is the possibility of a second round open to the winners of this round.

Details: https://t.me/contest_ru/7

Telegram Reached 1 Billion Downloads

Wire is a cloud-based instant messaging and broadcasting service provided by the not-for-profit company Telegram LLC, a limited liability company based in Dubai, founded by a Russian entrepreneur. Pavel Durov Back in 2013, when its first version was released on the eve of 15 August of the same year.

Under Zuckerberg, What particularly affected WhatsApp, the most used instant messaging system in the world to date, was a real panacea for Durov, who took advantage of Palo Alto’s troubled times to grab new users. When WhatsApp stopped working for 6 very long hours in early October, in fact, almost the whole world started communicating via Telegram, this time (except for traditional SMS) able to connect with friends The only way to be (even if, a phone call would have been useful to everyone…)

And of course Durov and his ads quickly took advantage of the situation, saying, among other things, that Telegram is the safest messaging app to take refuge in when things aren’t going well elsewhere. Whether this is the case or not, the result has been what Telegram and its team of developers have always dreamed of: reaching one billion downloads and surpassing it! And so it was. At least with respect to the Android version, which according to the data released by Google Play Store, has entered the club of Big Downloaders.

Certainly nothing to do with the results achieved by Facebook and WhatsApp over the years, but certainly the Zuckerberg-owned social media giants benefited greatly from most of their years of experience and above all given the fact That they were born a few years ago. But Telegram deserves this success and continues to be: its journey over the years has been marred by continuous improvements and updates, which have made it one of the most popular applications especially by users, who use it extensively for work purposes. Very happy with the work of Telegram developer team.

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.