Telegram Updated With New Features: Topics In Groups With Over 200 Members, Collectible Usernames And More

The new features on Telegram include Topics in Groups, Collectible Usernames, new interfaces for operating systems and more.

Telegram has rolled out a host of new features for its users.

Encrypted messaging app Telegram on Monday rolled out a host of new features for its users. The new features on Telegram include Topics in Groups, Collectible Usernames, new interfaces for operating systems and more. For Telegram premium subscribers, the company has brought features such as voice-to-text for video messages. This is a significant upgrade since Telegram premium users were previously able to only transcribe voice messages.

Telegram Premium users also get a bunch of 12 new emoji packs and Telegram app has also added several interface-driven updates for Android, iOS and desktop apps.

“I feel particularly excited about today’s Telegram update. It adds topics to large groups, transforming these linear chats into slick mobile-friendly versions of good old Internet Forums. Ironically, the very first popular internet service I built around 20 years ago was also an Internet Forum – a message board for students of my university, which eventually grew into the biggest student portal in the region," Pavel Durov, Founder of Telegram, wrote in a blog post.

"Today I am fortunate to have the best coding team in the world to recreate the forum experience for hundreds of millions across all platforms in a more modern, fast and accessible form. Telegram will now support organised conversations where thousands of people can concurrently discuss different subjects in the same group," Durov added.

What is topics in groups?

Telegram groups can support huge communities with hundreds of thousands of users. In a bid to keep these chats easy to read, groups with over 200 members can now enable topics and create separate spaces for any subject. Topics function as individual chats within the group -- supporting their own shared media and notification settings. Members are free to chat on any topic of their interest, using all their favourite features like polls, pinned messages and bots.

This feature is targeted at large groups, adding new ways to customise their chats and promote discussion. Later this year, Telegram expects to introduce a different set of tools, tailored to small groups. If users want to give topics a test drive, try them out in this public group. Group admins can enable topics in their "Group Settings" and can control who is allowed to create and manage topics in Permissions. Telegram plans to release further updates that will bring more powerful tools for both admins and users of this feature.

What is collectible usernames?

Telegram users can enable people to contact them or find their public groups and channels via usernames. In addition to one basic username, users can now assign multiple collectible usernames to each of their accounts and public chats. The ownership of collectible usernames is secured by TON -- a fast and scalable blockchain network.

New emoji packs for Telegram Premium users

Telegram has said that its artists have completed 12 new emoji packs and now premium users can use these emoji in any messages and captions, or set them as statuses for Halloween.