Telegram is feeling generous. Recently, the popular social media and messaging platform announced a whole slew of new additions to both its iOS and Android versions. While some of these new additions are OS-specific, most of them are geared toward making the two versions of the app indistinguishable – for too long iOS users have had to suffer from fewer features than their Android counterparts.
One of the biggest changes to both the iOS and Android versions of Telegram is the ability to add custom notification sounds. This means you no longer have to simply choose between the default noises you want to hear when you have a new Telegram message, you can choose any sound on planet Earth. You can even do all this from within a chat. Simply tap on a short voice message or audio file, and you’ll be able to instantly add it to your favorite Telegram notification sounds. Your selected sound simply needs to be under 5 seconds in length and no bigger than 300kB in size.
Another incredible new addition is the ability to customize mute durations. Previously, Telegram users could only mute notifications for either eight hours or two days. Now, however, users can specify a mute duration. This means you can now mute conversations and notifications for the duration of an entire holiday if you so desire.
Telegram also released a statement concerning bots: ‘Today we’re adding an entire new dimension, giving bot developers the tools to create infinitely flexible interfaces with JavaScript, one of the most popular programming languages in the world. With this, Telegram bots can completely replace any website.’
Telegram confidently calls this new development a revolution in the way bots operate.
Other iOS-specific changes that Telegram has recently announced are the improvement of in-app translations. iOS now carries support for just as many languages as Telegram on Android has. This next addition is completely unrelated to anything else in this article, but Telegram has also given you a brand-new animated food emoji. If all you really wanted from Telegram was a sticky stack of syrup-lathered pancakes or a hopping bag of popcorn, you’d be completely satisfied with the new additions.
We have oodles of other recent news about Telegram too. Here’s how to kick pesky inactive users out of your Telegram groups, and here are 6 useful functions that make Telegram better than WhatsApp.
