Telegram: New Update Features Topics to Groups, Collectible Usernames, More

A significant upgrade to Telegram has just been released, adding new functionality in addition to enhancements.

It includes collectible usernames that can be secured by blockchain, added in big groups, and traded or exchanged online. A premium subscription is required for Voice-to-Text for video messages, which essentially transforms any video message into text. On both the Android and iOS operating systems, Telegram users can access the update. While the majority of the new features will be compatible with both operating systems, some of them have been specifically designed for each platform.

Topics in groups, which group administrators can enable in their Group Settings, is one of the more significant upgrades. They essentially serve the same purpose as individual chats within a group and have separate shared media and notification settings. Topics will have access to all customary group features, including polls, pinged messages, and bots. According to Telegram, the new Topics feature is currently only accessible in large groups (over 200 members) and will be made available to smaller groups later this year with a separate set of tools.

The latest update also adds collectible usernames, allowing users to give each of their accounts and public conversations a different collectible username.

The valuable usernames can be purchased or sold via a new marketplace called Fragment, which was developed for it. They are safeguarded by Telegram’s TON blockchain network (which went online earlier this year). Users can make own usernames by using collectible usernames, which can be less than five characters. Once a person has a collected username, Telegram asserts that they have total control over it and that they can deactivate it as needed to be offline without losing the name.

Telegram Premium users have had access to voice-to-text for some time now, allowing them to instantly convert voice communications to text.

With the most recent upgrade, customers can now convert video messages to text as well. Additionally, 12 new emoji packs that may be used in status updates, captions, and messages are made available to premium subscribers.

A revamped Night mode for iOS, according to Telegram, makes colors appear more balanced and has better blurring effects when navigating through messages, among other enhancements and upgrades. Text sizes in chat settings on Android devices may now be adjusted by users, making all conversation text seem larger or smaller. In addition, 4 new interactive emoji that essentially play full-screen effects in one-on-one discussions are included in the most recent version.