Telegram succeeded to boost the number of monthly active users from 500 million in 2021 to 700 million this year, which is incredible growth. And today, the company finally rolled out paid tier in its app called Telegram Premium.
The company guarantees that the app’s current functionality will stay free for basic users despite all of the new stuff that will be added to the new Telegram Premium tier. Their connection with paying users won’t be restricted by the new paid features either. Free users can still receive the 4GB files sent by premium users and view the stickers and emojis they will use in chats, according to the company.
“Today is an important day in the history of Telegram – marking not only a new milestone, but also the beginning of Telegram’s sustainable monetization,” Telegram says in a post detailing the announcement of features. “We believe that Telegram’s development should be driven primarily by its users, not advertisers. This way our users will always remain our main priority.”
The actual cost of the monthly subscription hasn’t yet been disclosed by Telegram, but according to TechCrunch, it will be between $5 and $6. It costs €5.49 or $5.77, according to a Spanish tech analyst by the name of Alex Barredo. The company released a list of the benefits for Telegram Premium users.
In India, Telegram will charge Rs.460 per month for its Premium tier (as you can see in the below screenshot from my phone).
According to reports, Telegram Premium will have a number of new features, some of which are expected to offer the platform a clean look for paying customers. For example, profile videos included in the Premium subscription will now always be animated. They will also be granted a unique Premium badge and options of three app icon designs to show on their Home Screen. Several new emojis and unique stickers with full-screen animations will also be part of the Premium service.
While offering customers more control over how to organize and manage their accounts, other features focus on improving the users’ experience on the platform. For example, Premium members can assign their default folder and archive and mute new chats. Users will now be able to enjoy a new accessibility-like feature that converts voice messages into texts, and ads will no longer be displayed in the paid tier.
The most shocking feature of this Premium tier is the upgrades to feature limitations that every Telegram user is currently experiencing without paying a penny. Instead of the existing 2GB file sending limits, Premium users will be able to send files up to 4GB in size, and Telegram guarantees that they will be able to download files “at the fastest possible speed.”
Such users will be able to follow 1,000 channels, have up to 20 chat folders with 200 chats each, and have up to four accounts in the app. They will also be able to pin up to ten chats.
Even more, Telegram says that it will continuously make general improvements to the app, benefitting even free users.
As such, it also introduced some new updates, like “join requests” for group admins to make member approvals, an animated file sending progress bar on iOS, an animated profile picture generator on macOS, automatic saving to Gallery on Android, verification badge in chats, improved bots, new chat buttons (read, mute, pin, and delete), and ability to scroll through chats without marking them as read.
“This update includes over 100 fixes and optimizations to the mobile and desktop apps – eliminating bugs, improving speed, and expanding minor features,” Telegram adds. “iOS users with the latest iPhones and iPads get significantly smoother animations (120 FPS) throughout the app. Android users will notice better audio and video quality in voice and video messages, along with options to set alternative app icons, clear all recent stickers at once and translate user bios or chat descriptions.”
All-new features for Premium members
If you wanted to activate the new Telegram Premium tier, visit the app Settings (tap the left-side hamburger menu on Android or choose Settings from the right side at the bottom on iOS devices), there you will see the new option named “Telegram Premium” in the Settings with gradient color-like star icon.
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