New Features of Telegram (2021)

You don’t have to work hard to learn some things. But sometimes, it can be difficult to learn the new features of something you’ve used for a long time, especially if you don’t follow its blog. Telegram fits this description perfectly: this messaging app with millions of users gets new features almost every month, but you have to visit its blog pages regularly to keep up with them all. To save you the trouble, we’ve decided to list all the new features Telegram has gained in 2021.

Group Video Calls & Screen Sharing

These features were added in June and July. Telegram now lets you open your camera and share your screen during video calls within a group. To activate this feature, you can simply touch the camera icon. Everyone in that video call will be displayed on the screen, and you can tap on one to make it full screen. It is also possible to pin a full-screen video to keep it “fixed” on the screen, so everyone participating in that call can see that video first.

This feature currently only supports 30 people, so if there are more people on the call, only the first 30 people to join can take advantage of the video feature. However, Telegram plans to increase this number soon. Also, even if only 30 people can use the video feature, a video call can have 1,000 viewers (the rest are audio-only). Screen sharing allows you not only to see the person speaking but also to view everything he or she is sharing in real time.

For example, someone in the group can follow the login Vulkan Vegas link and start a game stream and share it. Likewise, it is possible for him/her to share a presentation or slide show. In this regard, we can say that Telegram has become a kind of Zoom alternative. As can be expected, this feature can be used much more efficiently on desktop devices and tablets: for example, more videos can be pinned at the same time.

Video Messages 2.0

Video messages are not a new feature: Telegram users have long been able to record short videos and share them without having to save them in their gallery. With the July update, this feature has been improved a bit: these short videos can now support much higher resolutions and can enlarge when you tap on them, displaying a higher quality version of the same video. In this way, you can pause, fast forward/rewind and even zoom in on a magnified video. Video playback speed can be adjusted to 0.5x, 1x, 1.5x, and 2x.

Another innovation that can be useful in this regard is the timestamp feature. You can now add a timestamp when posting video links. When that link is clicked, the relevant video starts exactly from that stamp. For example, if you want the video you sent to be displayed from the 35th second, this is possible.

There are other new features added in June and July too, but these are the most important ones. It will suffice to just list the rest:

• Your messages can now be automatically deleted after 1 day/week/month.
• You can add drawings, text and stickers to your images and videos.
• You can now reset the forgotten password even if you have not set a recovery email (but you still need to be logged in to your account)
• The camera in the iOS version now has a zoom wheel and supports all zoom levels supported by the iOS device
• The Android version of Telegram has updated message sending animations now

Payments 2.0 & Animated Backgrounds

These features were added in April and June. Telegram users have been able to pay through the app since 2017, and this service was offered through bots. The new version of this feature supports 9 different payment providers and now allows purchasing products or services with a credit card from almost any country.

Telegram has partnered with different payment providers, including Stripe and PayMe, for this feature: Thanks to this, it is possible to pay by credit card in more than 200 countries. In other words, be prepared to see Telegram stores instead of Instagram stores.

Telegram does not charge any commission for payments and does not store payment information. Any merchant can gain access to the Telegram payment API without the need for prior approval. Moreover, it is now possible for them to offer animated backgrounds in their stores: this feature, added in June, allows moving backgrounds to be added to every chat screen.

You can also create your own backgrounds using your favorite colors: just choose three or four colors. Since the animated wallpapers are created algorithmic-ally, they do not increase energy consumption and display an animation every time a message is sent.