Telegram for Android and iOS updated to version 12.7
In the May update, the app received a number of useful tools aimed at combating vote manipulation in polls and reaction spammers in groups.
• Custom styles for the AI editor: Telegram now lets you create your own styles within the AI-powered editor. Simply come up with a name, pick an icon from custom emojis, and write a prompt for the language model.
Finished styles can be shared with other users — when opening the link, they'll see examples of how the style transforms text. Creators can also choose to display a link to their profile in the style preview window.
• New poll tools: Administrators can now restrict voting to subscribers who joined the channel at least 24 hours ago. They can also set geographic restrictions, allowing only users from specific countries to participate in a poll.
• Removing reactions in groups: Group admins with the "Delete messages" permission can now remove reactions to any message. To do so, open the full reactions list and long-press the user.
It is also possible to restrict reactions in group chats — either for all members or for a specific user.
• Business bots for all users: Telegram now allows any user to connect business bots to their account, even without Telegram Premium. These bots can automatically handle chats and interact with customers.
Since the launch of Telegram Business in 2024, this feature had been available exclusively to Premium subscribers.
Other changes
• An option to send scheduled messages silently has been added.
• Markdown files (.md) up to 64 KB now open in Instant View mode.
• Poll statistics are now available for polls with at least 100 votes.
• Bots that power automated tools and AI assistants in Telegram can now be invoked directly from the message input field (guest mode support for bots).
Article: telegram.org/blog/ai-bot-revolution-11-new-features/
Download the update
• Android: Google Play, APK from the official website or verified channel.
• iOS: App Store.
#update #Android #iOS
In the May update, the app received a number of useful tools aimed at combating vote manipulation in polls and reaction spammers in groups.
• Custom styles for the AI editor: Telegram now lets you create your own styles within the AI-powered editor. Simply come up with a name, pick an icon from custom emojis, and write a prompt for the language model.
Finished styles can be shared with other users — when opening the link, they'll see examples of how the style transforms text. Creators can also choose to display a link to their profile in the style preview window.
• New poll tools: Administrators can now restrict voting to subscribers who joined the channel at least 24 hours ago. They can also set geographic restrictions, allowing only users from specific countries to participate in a poll.
• Removing reactions in groups: Group admins with the "Delete messages" permission can now remove reactions to any message. To do so, open the full reactions list and long-press the user.
It is also possible to restrict reactions in group chats — either for all members or for a specific user.
• Business bots for all users: Telegram now allows any user to connect business bots to their account, even without Telegram Premium. These bots can automatically handle chats and interact with customers.
Since the launch of Telegram Business in 2024, this feature had been available exclusively to Premium subscribers.
Other changes
• An option to send scheduled messages silently has been added.
• Markdown files (.md) up to 64 KB now open in Instant View mode.
• Poll statistics are now available for polls with at least 100 votes.
• Bots that power automated tools and AI assistants in Telegram can now be invoked directly from the message input field (guest mode support for bots).
Article: telegram.org/blog/ai-bot-revolution-11-new-features/
Download the update
• Android: Google Play, APK from the official website or verified channel.
• iOS: App Store.
#update #Android #iOS
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Telegram for Android and iOS Got a 12.8 Feature Upgrade
The June update resurrected the smartwatch apps and added even richer text formatting for bots.
• Telegram for Smartwatches: After many years, the messenger brought its smartwatch apps back for both Apple Watch and Android Wear OS (we fellow Pebble users sob in the corner).
The watch apps support basic features like sending text and voice messages, and viewing media attachments and video messages.
• Dozens of New Rich Text Options: This update allows Telegram bots to send more structured Markdown messages. The supported formats include all sorts of heading options, tables, blocks and spoilers, LaTeX math formulas, to-do checkbox lists, and any attachments in the middle of message text, including collages and carousel slideshows.
You can explore the new formatting in the interactive demo available at @RichTextDemoBot.
• Quick Browser Picker: You can now choose to open an external link in Telegram's built-in browser or vice versa, no matter what your settings are, by holding the link down.
You can now also specify site exceptions to your current settings, so if you have the built-in browser off, you can select which websites will always open in it, or, if you still have it enabled, you can choose which links will always open in the default browser app.
• Bots Can Captcha Users Before They Even Join the Chat: Admins can now assign Guardian Bots that will process join requests. When a user attempts to join such a chat, a Web App is launched instantly, where verification takes place. For example, it could be a quiz, a Cloudflare Turnstile checkbox, or a form to write an essay the chat owner has due tomorrow.
Other updates:
• Android got an app bar design refresh to more closely match the iOS app design (just in time for when Apple reverted a lot of the top floating panels nonsense in iOS 27).
• Poll options can now include links.
• The built-in Telegram browser now supports previewing .md pages
Article: https://telegram.org/blog/watch-apps-and-more/
Download the update
• Android: Google Play, APK from the official website or verified channel.
• iOS: App Store.
#update #Android #iOS
The June update resurrected the smartwatch apps and added even richer text formatting for bots.
• Telegram for Smartwatches: After many years, the messenger brought its smartwatch apps back for both Apple Watch and Android Wear OS (we fellow Pebble users sob in the corner).
The watch apps support basic features like sending text and voice messages, and viewing media attachments and video messages.
• Dozens of New Rich Text Options: This update allows Telegram bots to send more structured Markdown messages. The supported formats include all sorts of heading options, tables, blocks and spoilers, LaTeX math formulas, to-do checkbox lists, and any attachments in the middle of message text, including collages and carousel slideshows.
You can explore the new formatting in the interactive demo available at @RichTextDemoBot.
According to Pavel Durov's post on Twitter, rich formatting for regular users is planned for later this month, as the team needs to "test everything on bots first".
• Quick Browser Picker: You can now choose to open an external link in Telegram's built-in browser or vice versa, no matter what your settings are, by holding the link down.
You can now also specify site exceptions to your current settings, so if you have the built-in browser off, you can select which websites will always open in it, or, if you still have it enabled, you can choose which links will always open in the default browser app.
• Bots Can Captcha Users Before They Even Join the Chat: Admins can now assign Guardian Bots that will process join requests. When a user attempts to join such a chat, a Web App is launched instantly, where verification takes place. For example, it could be a quiz, a Cloudflare Turnstile checkbox, or a form to write an essay the chat owner has due tomorrow.
Other updates:
• Android got an app bar design refresh to more closely match the iOS app design (just in time for when Apple reverted a lot of the top floating panels nonsense in iOS 27).
• Poll options can now include links.
• The built-in Telegram browser now supports previewing .md pages
Article: https://telegram.org/blog/watch-apps-and-more/
Download the update
• Android: Google Play, APK from the official website or verified channel.
• iOS: App Store.
#update #Android #iOS
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Rich Text Formatting is Coming To Users Too
On his Twitter account, Pavel Durov announced that extended Markdown formatting — tables, headers, formulas, task lists, and expandable quotes — will be available not only for bots, but for regular users as well. According to the founder of the messenger, everything will be tested on bots first:
You can explore how the formatting works in the interactive demo: @RichTextDemoBot.
#bots
On his Twitter account, Pavel Durov announced that extended Markdown formatting — tables, headers, formulas, task lists, and expandable quotes — will be available not only for bots, but for regular users as well. According to the founder of the messenger, everything will be tested on bots first:
Planned for later this month, but need to test everything on bots first
You can explore how the formatting works in the interactive demo: @RichTextDemoBot.
#bots
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Telegram Is Banned in India, Deleted from App Stores, Suffered a Global Outage
The Indian government ordered a temporary ban on Telegram due to mass leaks of NEET-UG exam questions. However, a local telecom‘s attempt to restrict access led to interceptions far beyond the country. Editors at @tginfo explain how local censorship turned into a global outage.
What Happened in India
The formal reason for the ban was leaked questions for the national medical exam in Telegram channels. Currently, the official Telegram client has been removed from the Indian App Store and Google Play storefronts.
Pavel Durov points out that this move punishes 150 million users in India, while the leaks simply migrated to a different app, and that Telegram cooperated with regulators by deleting “hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India”. The CEO also adds that the messenger team has “been making the ‘edited’ label more visible to prevent backdating scams”, although it is not clear whether this change hasn't shipped yet or is some local change that our editors couldn‘t confirm independently. The “edited” indicator changes are said to be done to fight backdating scams.
For context, India is one of the biggest Telegram markets. The Indian government tried to pressure Telegram before: in 2022, a court demanded the disclosure of pirate channel owners‘ personal data. At that time, Telegram only complied on paper, stating that it didn‘t store the requested data on its servers. It is clear that this time the government is trying to act with more force.
From a Local Ban to a Global Outage
Trying to restrict Telegram inside the country, an Indian telecom company used a BGP routing hijacking trick.
• The Internet is made up of many interconnected networks that tell each other the data paths using the BGP protocol.
• An Indian telecom company announced to the whole world that it owns Telegram's IP addresses, forcing part of the global traffic to be sent through the false route, which blocks access to the messenger.
• Since many service providers around the world still don‘t verify the authenticity of the routes they receive, the false routes spread around the globe.
As a result, connectivity issues could be observed even outside India, including regions like the UAE. Similar incidents happened before: for example, in 2023, the Iraqi government used a similar trick to ban Telegram.
Industry experts point out that the Indian telecom even got into a brief network war with Telegram, in which one company tried to overwrite the opponent‘s routing directions. Pavel Durov announced that Reliance stopped malicious routing four hours after his post.
Erroneous Accusations Against Meta Trying to Blame for All Their Problems
Pavel Durov called the service provider‘s actions intentional sabotage and assumed that it might be part of the competitive war that WhatsApp is leading against Telegram, based on a claim that Reliance is partially owned by Meta (parent company of WhatsApp and Facebook).
Despite this, community and media research shows that Pavel Durov confused two companies. The network system that was hijacking the traffic is owned by Reliance Communications, an old telecom asset midway through bankruptcy, while Meta invested in a completely unrelated company — Jio Platforms (which also owns Reliance Jio, a large Indian service provider).
The theory about WhatsApp‘s corporate conspiracy couldn‘t be backed by any technical data. It is likely that the global traffic hijacking was caused by incompetence among the engineers at the Indian company responsible for configuring the hardware to block Telegram. It is not the first time that Pavel Durov has publicly accused WhatsApp of attacking Telegram, explaining unfavorable events with conspiracy theories.
#India #censorship #outages
The Indian government ordered a temporary ban on Telegram due to mass leaks of NEET-UG exam questions. However, a local telecom‘s attempt to restrict access led to interceptions far beyond the country. Editors at @tginfo explain how local censorship turned into a global outage.
What Happened in India
The formal reason for the ban was leaked questions for the national medical exam in Telegram channels. Currently, the official Telegram client has been removed from the Indian App Store and Google Play storefronts.
Pavel Durov points out that this move punishes 150 million users in India, while the leaks simply migrated to a different app, and that Telegram cooperated with regulators by deleting “hundreds of channels sharing leaked exam materials and related scams in India”. The CEO also adds that the messenger team has “been making the ‘edited’ label more visible to prevent backdating scams”, although it is not clear whether this change hasn't shipped yet or is some local change that our editors couldn‘t confirm independently. The “edited” indicator changes are said to be done to fight backdating scams.
For context, India is one of the biggest Telegram markets. The Indian government tried to pressure Telegram before: in 2022, a court demanded the disclosure of pirate channel owners‘ personal data. At that time, Telegram only complied on paper, stating that it didn‘t store the requested data on its servers. It is clear that this time the government is trying to act with more force.
From a Local Ban to a Global Outage
Trying to restrict Telegram inside the country, an Indian telecom company used a BGP routing hijacking trick.
• The Internet is made up of many interconnected networks that tell each other the data paths using the BGP protocol.
• An Indian telecom company announced to the whole world that it owns Telegram's IP addresses, forcing part of the global traffic to be sent through the false route, which blocks access to the messenger.
• Since many service providers around the world still don‘t verify the authenticity of the routes they receive, the false routes spread around the globe.
As a result, connectivity issues could be observed even outside India, including regions like the UAE. Similar incidents happened before: for example, in 2023, the Iraqi government used a similar trick to ban Telegram.
Industry experts point out that the Indian telecom even got into a brief network war with Telegram, in which one company tried to overwrite the opponent‘s routing directions. Pavel Durov announced that Reliance stopped malicious routing four hours after his post.
Erroneous Accusations Against Meta Trying to Blame for All Their Problems
Pavel Durov called the service provider‘s actions intentional sabotage and assumed that it might be part of the competitive war that WhatsApp is leading against Telegram, based on a claim that Reliance is partially owned by Meta (parent company of WhatsApp and Facebook).
Despite this, community and media research shows that Pavel Durov confused two companies. The network system that was hijacking the traffic is owned by Reliance Communications, an old telecom asset midway through bankruptcy, while Meta invested in a completely unrelated company — Jio Platforms (which also owns Reliance Jio, a large Indian service provider).
The theory about WhatsApp‘s corporate conspiracy couldn‘t be backed by any technical data. It is likely that the global traffic hijacking was caused by incompetence among the engineers at the Indian company responsible for configuring the hardware to block Telegram. It is not the first time that Pavel Durov has publicly accused WhatsApp of attacking Telegram, explaining unfavorable events with conspiracy theories.
#India #censorship #outages
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