Telegram Premium: additional account slots aren't so simple

Telegram Desktop developer explained how Telegram Premium multi account limits work.

As a beginning, a user gets 3 account slots for free. Premium subscription adds a single new slot per each Premium account you signed in with, up to 6 slots in total.

This way, subscribing for Telegram Premium from a single account allows you to add up to 4 accounts in total, but to have 6 slots you will need to subscribe from 3 different accounts.

You can't subscribe for Premium in different accounts from a single App Store / Google Play powered device, since these app stores don't support subscribing for the same subscription multiple times simultaneously.

Only Telegram Desktop can extend its limit up to 6 accounts by this scheme — other apps don't do that yet.

#premium

The Android app update was released to the website

Version 8.8.2 for Android is already available at the official website.
Full changelog is here.

Premium cannot be purchased yet, as the bot is currently inactive. The launch of the bot for all users will be announced separately.

Smart Glocal, the official Telegram partner and developer of the @donate bot, announced (in Russian) that it is also responsible for the @PremiumBot bot.

This bot can be trusted as it was created together with the Telegram team. Most likely, this payment system is designed to circumvent Apple's prohibition on setting a lower price when bypassing the App Store payment system.

UPD. Some users complain about the new reactions missing after the update — you may try uninstalling and then reinstalling the app to fix that.

#update #Android #premium

Telegram Desktop update is here

Version 4.0 can already be downloaded from the official website or from GitHub.

What's new
• Option to open chats in separate windows with Ctrl + Click (Settings › Advanced › Experimental settings).
• Support for Premium features, including multi-account up to six users.
• Improved the design of some sections, improved the style of buttons and icons in the folder settings, and added additional icons for folders.
• Improved window style for editing a folder.

Full changelog is here.

#update #Desktop #premium

Iranian and German users receive limited perks

Users with Iranian phone numbers report it's possible for them to purchase Premium, but they don't receive a star badge in their profile and don't have their video avatar played in loop.

German users report it's impossible for them to buy Premium at all.

#premium

Bot API was updated to version 6.1

What's new:
— To support 4GB files uploaded by premium accounts, file_size in most media classes can no longer be stored in a signed 32-bit integer type.
— Bots can now distinguish premium Users and Stickers with the new respective fields is_premium and premium_animation.
— Added several methods and fields to the class WebApp to handle API version, additional colors, haptic feedback and more.
— Added the events backButtonClicked, settingsButtonClicked and invoiceClosed.
— Updated ThemeParams, MainButton and WebAppInitData with new fields and methods.
— Bots can now process join requests created without an invite link — they will still receive a chat_join_request update.
— HTTP links for invoices can be generated with the new createInvoiceLink method.
— Bots can now detect when a user added them to their attachment menu via the new added_to_attachment_menu field. Integrated bots can now also be used in groups, supergroups and channels.

See the full changelog for details on the official website.

#update #BotAPI

How to suspend Telegram Premium?

Many users who paid for Telegram Premium through the verified @PremiumBot ask about how to cancel a paid subscription so that Telegram does not deduct money from your bank card every month?

To stop all future payments, just send the /stop command in the chat with @PremiumBot. To open the chat, just type the address of the bot in the messenger's search bar or find the chat with it in your chat list.

You can control the current subscription status and the date of the next payment by going to Settings › Telegram Premium section › Information under the list of all subscription benefits. From there, you can similarly go to the bot and suspend the Premium subscription.

#FAQ

3% of Telegram users with Premium subscription will cover the server costs

Pavel Durov announced the required number of Telegram Premium subscribers to cover Telegram's server costs.

"The beauty of Telegram Premium is that if just 2,5-3% of our users sign up for this subscription, Telegram will cover its costs, supported purely by its users. This will herald a new, user-centric era in the history of social media services."

The speech to text feature is safe

Pavel Durov explained why using Google's speech to text service from Telegram format is a safe and optimal solution:

— Telegram does not share users' personal data with Google.
— Telegram never sends audio data to third parties.
— Google can't make use of the depersonalized sound data other than converting them into text and returning them back.
— It was easier for Telegram to deploy its own free solution, or just use a service from smaller companies, but it would leave negative impacts on the quality of the results.
— Trusting Google remains as personal choice of Telegram Premium subscribers.

This information regarding the speech to text feature was obtained from the Telegram Privacy Policy (clause 8.5).

Telegram Desktop has been updated to version 4.0.1 and then to 4.0.2

What's new:
— Fix window title on Windows 7.
— Crash fix and OpenAL check for PipeWire fix on Linux.
— Bug fixes and other minor improvements.

Download: with official website or GitHub.

#update #desktop

Spendings of Telegram in 2022

According to Forbes, now the messenger’s expenses are $540 million annually, or $45 million per month.

Over the past two years, Telegram's audience has grown from 400 to 700 million monthly active users, and the cost per user has grown from $0.55 to $0.77 per year.

According to Forbes, an increase in costs is inevitable due to increased user activity and rising costs of server hardware.

#statistics

Telegram might have medical ads in future

Telegram has updated its Ad Platform guidelines. Now only uncertified medical services and medications are forbidden. Before that, the rules were banning any sorts of medical services, medications, and supplements.

The guidelines specify that only products that passed all certifications according to local laws are allowed. Also the products can't be implicitly or explicitly related to any unverified health and wellness benefits.

Examples of products that are not allowed:
• Nutrition products, including weight loss or gain products, herbal drugs, dietary supplements, pregnancy, and fertility-related products.
• Medicines or supplements not approved by the respective local regulatory body.
• Sale of medicines or medical products by a shop or entity that is not state-registered and authorized.
• Unlicensed medical devices, services and treatments.
• Prescriptions for medications.
• Products with unverified claims of healthful, curative or stimulating effects.

To participate in Telegram's Ad Platform, advertisers have to invest at least 2,000,000 €.

As a side note, Telegram Premium lists ad-free experience as one of its benefits.

Profile picture builder on Telegram for macOS

Version 8.8 of Telegram for macOS now can build avatars for users, chats, and channels. The feature is similar to the one found in iMessage. Other platforms don't have avatar builder yet. App Store update is unavailable yet too, so you will have to download the app directly from the website.

The builder lets you
• Choose an animated emoji, animated stickers from Telegram, or a monogram.
• Change its size and position.
• Choose one of gradient and pattern presets.

From the parameters you set, a video-avatar is generated. Telegram Premium users always have their video-avatars played in loop automatically, which is a nice addition to the new feature.

Would you like to see the profile picture builder on other platforms, or do you consider the feature to be unnecessary?

#macOS

Official bot for tracking government requests

Telegram has launched @transparency — a bot that can be used to obtain information about the user data shared with governments around the world, data such as the user's IP address or phone number (as mentioned in clause 8.3 of the Privacy Policy).

Users can only see transparency records of the country to which their phone number belongs. That said, Telegram will not be disclosing users' data with countries or regions with a low democracy index.

The public address @transparency was previously used by another official channel which was for broadcasting data disclosure information. Although even after the 4th year of its existence, nothing was published there, which might mean that the requests of the authorities were not satisfied.

Submissions for the Android development contest were published

The task of the contest was implementing reactions for Telegram X according to provided mockups (including animations, layouts and all customization options).

You can test and view the submissions by downloading the APK files in the special channel: @tgx_prs.

Since the apps were developed by third-party developers, it's not recommended to use your main account.

Results of the contest will be announced on July 12.

#contests

Journalists traced Telegram's payment partners

Telegram Info editors have previously mentioned that the @donate and @PremiumBot bots are not developed directly by Telegram, but were created by a company called Smart Glocal in partnership with the messenger team.

Mediazona's journalists conducted an investigation and found out that money from users from Russia passes through a network of payment providers and companies linked to Kazan-based entrepreneur Dmitry Eremeev.

The publication notes that Eremeev is the owner of Bank 131 and an old partner of the Durov brothers, who helped them in the early days of VKontakte. It also mentions that the entrepreneur has invested in the cryptocurrency Toncoin. Despite all the arguments by Mediazone, Eremeev denies any affiliation with the bots mentioned.

The investigation also points out controversial aspects of Smart Glocal's activities. For example, a number of journalists complained that they were denied to be serviced by the @donate bot, citing a "rule prohibiting critical statements on political topics" in the channels."

Telegram Info has translated the article to English.
https://tginfo.me/telegram-payment-partners/

Results of the second round of the GIF contest were published

Judges and paid contributors delivered over 500,000 required verdicts in order to select 285 winning works, containing thousands of GIF-files.

In order to see high-quality, smooth and impressive GIF files, created by the winners of the contest, you need to open the search section of GIFs in your Telegram app. You can paste any emoji into the search field or enter your desired query.

In general, the rating shows the quality of the image, the overall usability of the content present, and its relevance to the selected emoji.

The judges evaluated creativity, uniqueness, and stylistic consistency. Bonus points were awarded to contestants who achieved excellent quality and maintained a small size.

GIF animations created by the awardees and winners of the competition are already waiting for you in the corresponding panel.

More about the results of the competition here.

#contests

Telegram WebZ was updated to version 1.49.0

What's new
— Telegram Premium support.
— Ability to use built-in trackpad gestures for media browsing: Swipe left or right to navigate through media, or up/down to exit.
— Improved polls with support for unvoting and closing, as well as the confetti effect.
— Improved payment validation form.
— Use the hotkey ⌘+ to access Application Settings on macOS.
— Appearance of a useful information screen when JavaScript support is disabled.
— Various layout and performance improvements.

Bug fixes
— The call bar will disappear rightly after answering a call from another device.
— Fixes unexpected deletion of messages when using search in the forwarding menu.
— Fixes unnecessary zoom when loading small images.
— Archived chats will no longer appear in the "Forward to" list.
— Fixes loading loop when disabling reactions in group management.
— Various fixes in the text formatting menu.

web.telegram.org/z

#webz #update

Delete account right from the app

Version 8.3.3 of Telegram for iOS can now delete your account immediately at your request. The new option has appeared in Privacy settings. A sudden update is related to new App Store's guidelines that require the published apps to have an option for users to delete their account without leaving the app.

If you choose to delete your account immediately, Telegram will show you some options you might want to do instead of terminating your account, like changing privacy settings or clearing cache. The deletion button is hidden at the very end of the lengthy list of possible actions.

It's important to know that you can't restore your data nor your account upon its deletion.

Before this change you could delete your account only on the official website, on the deactivation page.

#iOS #update

The results of the Telegram X Android Contest were announced

The June contest's task was to implement reactions to messages in Telegram X that were identical to the attached demos, including all animations, layouts and other visual effects.

Six participants shared $25,000 as a prize. Nine of the eleven participants had already taken part in Telegram's developer contests in past.

The contestants faced the challenge of implementing reactions to messages from scratch while not reusing the existing code base of other Telegram apps.

More information about the winners, their awards, and their work can be viewed on the official Telegram Contests channel.

#contest

Custom emoji in the next update

New content was uploaded to Telegram's servers, so now we know more about the upcoming update.

The feature will let people use stickers as emoji within the text of messages. There will be packs animated by the Telegram team and custom sets from regular users — including static and video emoji.

It is likely that only Premium users will be able to use custom emoji sets: this may be the first addition to the list of perks since the introduction of the subscription.

#premium