New Delhi: As the year draws to an end, encrypted messaging app Telegram on Friday announced it is rolling out special features for its users that includes reactions, message translation, themed QR codes, hidden text (spoilers) as the key features, in its 12th major update this year. With this, the company intends to enhance the user chat experience on the platform along with expanding more engaging ways to interact with different audiences.
Out of all, the message reactions was the most awaited one and here is why. Rolling out now, Telegram 8.4 brings the much-talked-about message reactions for users on Android.
Reactions on Telegram
Now Telegram users can react to a specific message with these animated emojis without even sending a new message, much like what we have seen on Facebook where people can react to each other's posts and comments with an animated emoji. "Each reaction appears with its own unique animation. Users can change the default reaction to another emoji in Settings. Android: Chat Settings > Quick Reaction. iOS: Stickers and Emoji > Quick Reaction," the company said in a statement.
Reactions are always on in private chats in groups and channels, the admins decide whether to turn on reactions and choose which reaction emoji are available in the chat. Admins can control reactions via their group or channel's Info Page > Edit > Reactions.
Message Translation
Over half a billion people around the world use Telegram not only to stay in touch with friends, but also to chat in public groups and view content from channels -- in every language imaginable. Now, users can translate any message into another language, right in the Telegram app. The translation feature is available on all Android devices that support Telegram, however, it requires an iOS 15+ version to work on Apple devices. The number of supported languages is equivalent to the languages available on the OS (operating system).
Themed QR Codes
Now, Telegram users can also generate QR codes for any users that have a public username. This also works for groups, channels and bots. This makes it easy and attractive to showcase someone’s profile in a quick manner. Users can Tap the new QR code icon next to the username of a person (or from a chat’s info page), choose the colours and pattern that fit best, then print, post or share their QR codes to other apps and platforms.
More Interactive Emoji to end the year with
Animators at Telegram have also added new interactive versions of 🔥 😁 🤩 😢 😭 😱 ❄️. Users can send any of them in 1-on-1 chats, then they need to tap to unleash a full-screen effect of the same.
Spoiler messages
To make the user chat experience interesting and fun, Telegram introduced Spoiler Messages where a user can hide a certain portion of the text with the help of ‘Spoiler’ formatting. This applies to the chat list and notifications, as well. Once the recipient taps the message, if they want to, the hidden text will be revealed.
New Menus for macOS
Telegram has redesigned all the context menus in Telegram for macOS -- adding some new shortcut hints and introducing beautifully animated icons for every single menu item in the app.