Pavel Durov commented the reason for blocking the Smart Voting bot

On his official Telegram channel, Pavel posted an article about why Telegram had to follow the Apple and Google policies when they suspended a voting app.

"Telegram gives its users more freedom than any other app. If Telegram has to temporarily remove some content due to a law, it means that other platforms would have removed it long before us.", — Pavel Durov wrote in his post.

A security researcher blames Telegram of non-transparent conditions for finding vulnerabilities and low feedback quality in the Bug Bounty program

In the article, the user tells about a vulnerability they discovered in Telegram for Android. The subject of the error lies in incorrect operation of image auto-deletion in Telegram. After numerous requests, half a year later, the error was fixed in version 8.0, but there were no official messages about the fix from the Telegram team.

In addition, the researcher examined in detail the contract the researchers are required to sign to receive a bug bounty award. According to the author, Telegram forces researchers to keep silent about the discovered vulnerabilities even after they are fixed, which does not meet industry standards. After trying to get an explanation from the team, the representatives of the messenger stopped responding to emails and in chat.

Same conditions transparency issue was recently reported by another researcher, who discovered a vulnerability that allowed an account to continue receiving messages even after terminating its session. Both researchers gave up monetary rewards in exchange for the opportunity to cover the event in the media.

Assigning a new owner of a group or channel when deleting the previous account

Article is here: https://tginfo.me/how-to-get-ownership-back-en/

#FAQ

Telegram may be slow

Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are experiencing disruptions all over the world.

Telegram is currently "working slowly, but still holding on" - so the messenger team wrote on its Twitter. It happened due to the ongoing problems with the Facebook's services and the influx of users from non-working applications.

Large userbase is troublesome for Telegram

According to Pavel Durov, one of recent updates for the Telegram app had to be delivered as soon as possible due to a breaking change: the messenger is moving to int64 data format. Let's find out what that is and how does it impact the messenger.

Each user, channel, and chat get a unique identifier assigned to it. Since the launch of the service, this identifier is being stored in a 32 bits sized memory cell. This means the maximum user count this identifier can express equals to about two billion entities.

Telegram keeps approaching this limit, so the team urgently updated all their apps to support 64-bit sized numbers (max value of which is about nine quintillions), since it's impossible to solve the problem without an app update.

Telegram is smart about using their current numeric space, they assign identifiers in according number ranges based on user's region and registration time, but the team is running out of these ranges. Recent userbase growth caused by Facebook services unreachability (70M new users) made this problem even worse.

According to a Russian channel «СЛЕГ!», the messenger team started using their last available range of the old type identifiers for 50M future users which should last for about two months.

To avoid possible problems, you need to update your app to the recent version as soon as possible. It's unknown how the messenger team is going to work around this problem, but recently Telegram's documentation was updated to introduce a mechanism for forced updates, which was likely designed for the smooth transition to the identifiers of the new size.

Sponsored messages are being tested now

Some more information about the upcoming sponsored messages feature appeared on the official localization platform.

What do we know:
• Sponsored messages is advertisement from the Telegram itself, not the channel admins.
• Advertisers can select channels they want to show their message on.
• Sponsored messages are an experiment for now and are being tested.
• For the testing period, only Telegram will make a profit from the advertising.
• As soon as Telegram will cover its main spends, the profit will be shared with participating channels owners too.
• In future the messenger website will have a panel for buying ads.
• Sponsored messages are located below all the channel posts (you need to swipe down to see it).
• According to Telegram's announcements, the ads won't be targeted and will not contain external links.

#monetization

Sponsored messages requirements in Telegram

A Russian channel called Durov's Code found out about upcoming requirements for sponsored messages in Telegram. The rules are going to be distinctively strict and are aimed to allow only high quality promotions.

Advertising requirements:
• Sponsored messages can contain only text.
• Maximum post length — 160 symbols.
• The post mustn't contain external links.
• Only a single post per channel which is going to be displayed at the bottom after reading all the recent posts of the channel.
• Moderation rules and requirements will be way more strict compared to other platforms.

You can learn more about conditions under which sponsored messages will work in our post.

#monetization

Telegram Desktop has been updated to version 3.1.8

What's new:
— Control video in fullscreen mode using arrows and numbers.
— Open locations in browser if default Bing Maps is not installed.
— Reconnect without timeout when network availability changes.
— Choose one of 8 new preset themes for any individual private chat.
— Click on '...' menu > 'Change Colors' to pick a theme.
— Both chat participants will see the same theme in that chat – on all their devices.
— Each new theme features colorful gradient message bubbles, beautifully animated backgrounds and unique background patterns.
— All chat themes have day and night versions and will follow your overall dark mode settings.
— Implement main window rounded corners on Windows 11.
— Fix audio capture from AirPods on macOS.
— Show small media previews in chats list;
— Show media album previews and caption text in chats list;
— Add "Quick Reply" and "Mark as Read" to native Windows notifications.
— Fix channel message views and comments counter updates.
— Sponsored messages support.
— Supported Background link preview.
— Updated TDLib: fixed crash & changed behaviour of read status in support chats.
— Fixed tapping on via @bot in forward header.
— Fixed bugs related to migrating to new identifiers.
— Other improvements and bugfixes.

Download: with official website or GitHub.

#update #desktop

Help needed in international Telegram Info channels

For 8 months, translators have been actively participating in international expansion of Telegram Info in more than 30 languages. This all is possible thanks to you — our volunteers, who translate news about Telegram into their native language.

However, some channels need additional translators:

🇪🇹 Amharic:
@tginfoam & @betainfoam
🇮🇳 Hindi:
@tginfohi & @betainfohi
🌷 Karakalpak:
@tginfokaa & @betainfokaa
🇲🇾 Malay:
@tginfoms & @betainfoms
🪴 Malayalam:
@tginfoml & @betainfoml
🇷🇴 Romanian:
@tginforo & @betainforo
🌺 Simplified Chinese:
@tginfocn & @betainfocn

If you want to help us with the translation into these languages or are ready to offer a new one, let us know about you in the feedback bot: @infowritebot.

You can see the list of all languages here: https://t.me/tginfoall/17.

Telegram for Android has been downloaded over 1 billion times

This is the number of Telegram downloads from Google Play, but there are also other app stores. Moreover, there are still iPhone and iPad users downloading apps from the App Store, as well as Telegram clients for PC.

Pavel Durov reported 70 million new users in the messenger due to the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp down, and IDs exceeding 2 billion in Telegram appeared this month.

Telegram overcame the 500 million downloads mark in the Play Store in May 2020.

#statistics

UK urges to impose sanctions against Telegram

"Telegram is the app of choice for extremists," said the leader of Labor Party and opposition in UK, Kir Starmer, noting that anonymous users use the messenger to post threats to "kill all women", "kill politicians", as well as homophobic insults, Islamophobia and racism.

Telegram representatives told the BBC that they were "surprised" by Sir Keir's statement, saying that "calls for violence are expressly forbidden on Telegram".

"Our moderators routinely remove content that violates this rule using a combination of proactive monitoring of public spaces and user reports," the Telegram statement concluded.

bbc.com/news/uk-politics-58980384

Telegram has added new payment providers for Payments 2.0

From now on, PSB, Portmone, Paymega, and Cascad are integrated into the Payments 2.0 platform, that was created to provide fast payments for bot developers.

Payments 2.0 was introduced in April of this year. One of the bots that supports the new payment method is the verified @donate bot, which was created to accept donations to channel authors.

Telegram has launched an advertising platform

"Sponsored messages" in Telegram will be displayed in public channels with 1000+ subscribers and a limit of 160 characters.

Sponsored messages are based solely on the subject of the public channels in which they are shown.

The minimum price per thousand views for a sponsored message is 2 euros.

promote.telegram.org

Pavel Durov commented on the announcement of the advertising platform

Pavel Durov announced the official advertising platform and explained why most users won't notice this update:

1. Telegram won't show advertising messages in the list of chats, personal conversations or groups.
2. No personal data will be used to display ads.
3. Official advertising messages in Telegram will be unobtrusive.

Pavel Durov noted that the advertising messages introduced by Telegram will be much more comfortable for users. The revenue from such advertisements will allow Telegram to continue providing users with a free and unlimited service.

The advertising platform will be available only for large advertisers

To ensure and maintain high quality of ad content, a minimum advance payment of €2,000,000 is required to launch ads on the Telegram Ad Platform.

Of this payment, Telegram holds €1,000,000 as a deposit, and makes the remaining sum available to the advertiser to spend on displaying ads.

If the contract is terminated and the advertiser spent less than €10,000,000 on ads within the preceding 12 months, the €1,000,000 deposit is withheld by Telegram.

If the contract is terminated and the advertiser spent more than €10,000,000 on ads within the preceding 12 months, the €1,000,000 deposit is returned.

All ads must comply with the Ad Platform Terms of Service and the Telegram Ad Policies and Guidelines.

Flexible invitation links and improved shared media navigation

The Telegram team has started testing the next update. Let's see what's coming:

— Better invite links
Now names can be assigned to the links, and the channel admin can enable a waiting room to approve each join request. This can be useful for advertising campaigns.

— Improved shared media navigation
You can change the attachments grid size, as well as the ability to select the display of photos or videos.

Hyper-Speed Scrolling and Calendar View for Shared Media, Join Requests and Global Chat Themes on iOS
⁠
Telegram for Android and iOS 8.2 are released

Improved Shared Media Navigation
• Now there is the ability to adjust the size of the grid by pressing the desired button ("Zoom In" or "Zoom Out") or with a two-finger gesture.
• There is a new date block that allows you to move through the section even faster by pulling it.
• Shared media now can also be displayed as a calendar.
• To use the calendar in this section, just open the new menu in the upper right corner of the Media tab, or click on the date block.
• In the menu, you can now choose content to be displayed in the Media tab - just photos, just videos, or both.

Join Requests for Groups and Channels
• You can now create special invitation links for groups and channels, joining from which is possible only after the approval of the request by a chat administrator.
• To view new requests, administrators simply click on the new panel under the chat header.
• Before deciding whether to accept or reject an application, administrators can view users' public data - such as photos and "About Yourself" information.
• Membership request mode can be enabled for any of the optional invitation links in your group or channel settings.

Unique Names for Invite Links
• Invitation links can now be given names that are visible only to administrators in the group settings.

Global Chat Themes (iOS only)
• The eight color themes that could be set for personal chats can now be applied to the entire Telegram app.
• Each theme has day and night versions, color gradients for message blocks and animated backgrounds with unique patterns.
• In this update, the design settings section has been redesigned to make theme selection more convenient.
• Advanced settings can be found under Appearance > Chat Themes.

Transit Times for Shared Locations (iOS only)
• Tapping a geoposition opens a map - now you can see how quickly you will get to a given location on foot, by car, or by public transportation.
• To build a route or call a cab, tap on the time, and the geoposition will open in another application.
• Travel time is shown for both exact geo-positioning and real-time geo-positioning broadcasts.

Instant Media Captions (iOS only)
• Previously typed text draft will be automatically substituted in the caption field after adding an attachment to it.

Settings updated for iOS 15
• Telegram has updated the settings section of the iOS app to match the design with standards adopted in iOS 15.
• Notifications and sticker settings have been optimized, and the Devices section has been made clearer with new icons and more conveniently structured information.
• You can click on any of your connected devices to see more information or end a session remotely.

More Interactive Emoji
• Some animated emoji now have full-screen effects when clicked, such as 👻, 👎, 🤮, 😂, 💸 and 🎃.
• When you click on the emoji, your interlocutor will see the effect at the same time as you if their chat with you is open too.

Read more here: telegram.org/blog/shared-media-scrolling-calendar-join-requests-and-more/

Android: Google Play, APK from official website or verified channel.
iOS: App Store.

#update #Android #iOS

Telegram Banned in Uzbekistan

Local regulating authority of Uzbekistan issued a statement that imposes a ban on Telegram and other services in the country.

Earlier Uzbekistan authorities has tightened laws related to personal data collection. Services that won't store data on servers located in Uzbekistan will be fined and their operation will be prevented in the country.

For Telegram Users in Uzbekistan, we recommend to use our proxy. You can also keep track on the situation in Uzbek language on the official mirror channel @tginfouzb and report about the situation in @tginfouzbchat.

#bans

Test Launch of Telegram Ads

Sponsored messages started to appear in large channels. Right now all of them lead you to a Pavel Durov's post in his Russian channel where he explains the upcoming ad platform.

Sponsored messages can be displayed in public channels with more than 1K+ subscribers, they also have a 160 symbols limit. The messages are based on the channel's general topic they're being displayed in.

Telegram Info team reminds you that sponsored messages appear without channel owners' consent and currently they can't be turned off.

Bot API was updated to version 5.4

What's new:
— Added the the parameter creates_join_request to the methods createChatInviteLink and editChatInviteLink for managing chat invite links that create join requests.
— Added the fields creates_join_request and pending_join_request_count to the class ChatInviteLink.
— Added the field name to the class ChatInviteLink and the parameters name to the methods createChatInviteLink and editChatInviteLink for managing invite link names.
— Added updates about new requests to join the chat, represented by the class ChatJoinRequest and the field chat_join_request in the Update class. The bot must be an administrator in the chat with the can_invite_users administrator right to receive these updates.
— Added the methods approveChatJoinRequest and declineChatJoinRequest for managing requests to join the chat.
— Added support for the choose_sticker action in the method sendChatAction.

Full changelog on the website.

#update #BotAPI