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This is the English mirror of @tginfo. Ask Questions & Discuss: @tginfochaten Beta Channel: @betainfoen TON: @infotonen Other Languages: @tginfoall Feedback & Commecrial: @infowritebot
Public Profile Pictures
• If you have hidden your profile photo from some users, you can upload a public photo that will be shown to them.
• You can set visibility to 'Nobody' and add some users or groups as exceptions.
• These settings are available in Settings > Privacy and Security > Profile Photo.
The full list of changes is here.
New Drawing and Text Tools
Telegram's already powerful media editor has been fully redesigned:
• Drawing tools dynamically change width based on drawing speed and automatically smooth your lines.
• There is a new blur tool to redact sensitive data (or photobombers) – and 5 high-precision ways to choose colors, including the Eyedropper tool.
• When adding text to photos or videos, you can now change its size, font, and background.
• Adding custom animated emoji to text on images is available for all users, even if they don't have a Telegram Premium subscription.
• To quickly add shapes like rectangles, circles, arrows, stars, and chat bubbles, tap the “+” button.
• You can also hold the surface to fill the canvas with color – or to erase everything.
• In the coming updates, Telegram plans to further refine the media editor interfaces and improve their performance.
The full list of changes is here.
Hidden media
• Now you can also cover photos and videos with a shimmering layer that blurs the image. It will take your recipients one tap to break the spell and see the content.
• In the attachment menu, select one or more items, tap ➕ Android or iOS and choose 'Hide with Spoiler'.
The full list of changes is here.
Hidden Media, Zero Storage Usage, New Drawing Tools, Profile Pictures for Your Contacts, and More
Telegram for Android, iOS have been updated to version 9.3.
⚠️ Other Telegram clients will receive the new version shortly.
Hidden Media
• You can cover photos and videos with a shimmering layer that blurs the image. It will take your recipients one tap to break the spell and see the content.
• In the attachment menu, select one or more items and choose 'Hide with Spoiler'.
Zero Storage Usage
• You can add separate auto-remove settings for cached media from Private Chats, Groups, and Channels – with exceptions for specific chats.
• The new pie charts help visualize what's taking up space, and dedicated tabs for Media, Files and Music let you clear the largest items in just a few taps.
• On iOS, it was greatly reduced the time it takes the app to calculate cache size.
New Drawing and Text Tools
• Telegram's already powerful media editor has been fully redesigned.
• Drawing tools dynamically change width based on drawing speed and automatically smooth your lines.
• There is a new blur tool to redact sensitive data (or photobombers) – and 5 high-precision ways to choose colors, including the Eyedropper tool.
• When adding text to photos or videos, you can now change its size, font, and background.
• Adding custom animated emoji to text on images is available for all users, even if they don't have a Telegram Premium subscription.
• To quickly add shapes like rectangles, circles, arrows, stars, and chat bubbles, tap the “+” button.
• You can also hold the surface to fill the canvas with color – or to erase everything.
• In the coming updates, Telegram plans to further refine the media editor interfaces and improve their performance.
Profile Pictures for Your Contacts
• When editing your contacts, you can choose a picture for them – only you will see it on their profile.
• If you have a good profile picture for your contact, you can suggest it to them. It will take them just two taps to add it to their profile.
• Open a contact's Profile > Edit, then choose 'Set Photo for…' or 'Suggest Photo for…'.
Public Profile Pictures
• You can set visibility to 'Nobody' and add some users or groups as exceptions.
• These settings are available in Settings > Privacy and Security > Profile Photo.
Hiding Group Members
• Admins of groups with 100+ members can now choose to hide the member list. This way, if people don't send messages to the group, only its admins will know they were there.
New Progress Animations on Android
• Smooth new animations have been added when jumping to a faraway reply in a busy chat and to other pages throughout the app.
🌟 New Animated Emojies
• Premium users get 10 new packs of custom animated emoji as a present from Telegram artists.
More Interactive Emoji
• To watch full-screen effects in sync with your chat partner, send a single 🎅🎄☃️💅🗿🆒🤪 in any 1-on-1 chat and then tap on it.
• All these emoji can now be used as reactions – the Moai face will be particularly useful to see off 2022.
Article: https://telegram.org/blog/hidden-media-zero-storage-profile-pics?setln=en
Android: Google Play, APK from official website or verified channel.
iOS: App Store.
Desktop: from official website or GitHub.
macOS: From App Store or Verified Channel.
Unigram for Windows 10+: Microsoft Store | Direct download | Installation instructions
#update #Android #iOS #Desktop #macOS #Unigram
TGStat summarizes the results of your channels and chats for 2022
@TGStat_Bot will show your views, forwards, comments, reactions, mentions, and reposts for 2022. This year, you can get statistics not only for channels, but also for chats.
To get a New Year's card, go to @TGStat_Bot and write: "2022 @username", substituting the address of your channel or chat, for example: "2022 @tginfoen".
You can share your cards in the comments to this post.
Telegram shows the greatest growth in downloads in Europe among messaging apps
According to data from Sensor Tower, Telegram has seen the greatest growth in downloads among messaging apps in Europe over the past three years, while WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Viber have all seen a significant decline. It is expected that Telegram will take second place in terms of downloads in the coming year, only behind TikTok.
It's important to note that download data does not necessarily reflect the overall usage or popularity of an app and can be influenced by a variety of factors. The popularity of messaging apps can also vary significantly by region.
#statistics
Telegram among social media platforms used by China's COVID-19 protesters
People who protest against China's COVID-19 measures are using dating apps and social media platforms, including Weibo, Douyin, WeChat, Telegram, Instagram, and Twitter, to organize protests and circumvent censorship. Protests against the measures have taken place in several cities across China over the past few days, and are believed to be the first instances of civil disobedience in the country since President Xi Jinping took power a decade ago.
While state media did not cover the protests and the government has made a very few statements, the Foreign Ministry has said that China is a country with the rule of law and that all the rights and freedoms of its citizens are protected within the law.
Some protesters are using VPN software to access encrypted messaging apps and are adopting a decentralized model to exchange information with close-knit networks of friends. Others are using dating apps hoping to avoid scrutiny and are sharing information about the protests on social media platforms. Police is reportedly checking phones for VPN apps and the Telegram app. According to Sensor Tower, Telegram has seen a significant increase in downloads in China during the protests.
Protesters are adopting decentralized models, similar to those used in the Hong Kong protests of 2019. People have also used social media platforms to share advice on what to do if arrested, such as how to erase data from phones.
Apple has limited the use of its AirDrop file-sharing function on devices in mainland China, restricting the ability of users to send or receive files from non-contacts to a 10-minute window. The move comes weeks after reports that protesters had used the feature to spread messages critical of the Chinese government. The restrictions do not appear to affect iPhones purchased outside China, though iOS beta imposes the restriction globally. The change has received mixed reactions in Chinese media, with some praising it for addressing the problem of nuisance messages on public transport, while others have accused Apple of appeasing the Chinese authorities. The US tech giant has faced similar accusations in the past, including pulling the Quartz app from its store in China during the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
Subscribe to our Chinese channel for more China's local news.
#statistics #censorship #China
New Interactive Emoji
• Send one of these emojis 😇, 🫡, 🤝, 🙈, 🤗, ✍️, 😨 as a separate message to any private chat, then click on it to see a full-screen animation at the same time as the other person.
• The emojis above are also available to all users as reactions.
• In addition, animated versions of many previously static emoji have been added, including flags 🇮🇳, 🇧🇷, 🇮🇩, surrounding objects 📨, 📱, 🛒, and more abstract images 🔝, 🔞, 🦄.
The full list of changes is here.
Aggressive Anti-Spam
• Now administrators of groups with more than 200 members can use the full power of Telegram's algorithms against spammers by switching the automatic aggressive anti-spam to the new Active mode.
• If group admins notice filter false positives, they can report it directly in the Recent Actions section to help developers improve filtering.
The full list of changes is here.
Auto-Delete All Chats
• From this day on, users have access to a common timer, according to which messages will be automatically deleted in all new chats.
• The shared timer will not affect previously created chats, but they can be quickly configured to automatically delete messages in the new menu: Settings > Privacy & Security > Auto-Delete Messages.
• After switching on, the timer will be set for all new personal chats, even if it was not you who wrote first, but the interlocutor, as well as for all new groups you created.
• Setting the auto-delete timer has become easier in small private groups: it can be started by any member who is allowed to edit the group name and photo.
The full list of changes is here.
No-SIM Signup, Auto-Delete All Chats, Topics 2.0, and Moreㅤ
Telegram for Android, iOS and macOS, as well as the Unigram client have been updated to version 9.2. Telegram Desktop has been updated to version 4.4.
Sign up without a SIM card
• Now you can register a Telegram account without a physical SIM card using anonymous numbers based on the blockchain.
• You can purchase these numbers on the Fragment platform.
Auto-Delete All Chats
• Now users available a common timer, which will automatically delete messages in all new chats.
• The shared timer will not affect previously created chats, but they can be quickly configured to automatically delete messages in the new menu Settings > Privacy & Security > Auto-Delete Messages.
• After switching on, the timer will be set for all new private chats, even if it was not you who wrote first, but the interlocutor, as well as for all new groups you created.
• Setting the auto-delete timer has become easier in small private groups: it can be started by any member who is allowed to edit the group name and photo.
Topics 2.0
• Topics are now available in groups with more than 100 members.
• Added a new vertical panel for easy switching to other chats.
• To go to the last active topic directly from the chat list, just click on the preview of the last message - now it works like a button.
• The topic “General questions” has been added, which stores the history of messages before the group went into topic mode, as well as all service messages.
• Administrators can rename or hide the Common Questions topic from the main list.
• To view new messages from all topics at the same time, just switch to the General Chat mode.
• To make it easier for users to navigate the list, the message counters in topics that they have already viewed will be brighter, and in those where they have not yet looked, they will be lighter and more inconspicuous.
• In such groups, you can now pin up to 5 topics.
Aggressive Anti-Spam
• In groups with more than 100 members, you can switch the automatic aggressive anti-spam to active mode: Group Information > Administrators.
• Administrators can help improve filtering by reporting any false positives in Recent Actions.
Temporary QR codes
• The QR code page in Settings can now generate a temporary code for users who do not provide a username, and also hide their phone number from all users.
• Show this code to other users if you want them to add you as a contact without knowing your phone number.
🌟 New Emoji Sets
• Telegram artists have prepared 10 new emoji sets.
• Now Premium users have even more ways to express their thoughts and emotions in messages, reactions and statuses.
Other changes
• Emoji search (iOS).
• Detailed memory usage report in individual chats (Android).
• View location in third-party navigation applications (Android).
• New animations when loading various interface elements (Android).
• New animated emojis and reactions: 😇, 🫡, 🤝, 🙈, 🤗, ✍️, 😨.
Article: https://telegram.org/blog/ultimate-privacy-topics-2-0?ln=en
Android: Google Play, APK from official website or verified channel.
iOS: App Store.
Desktop: from official website or GitHub.
macOS: From App Store or Verified Channel.
Unigram for Windows 10+: Microsoft Store | Direct download | Installation instructions
#update #Android #iOS #Desktop #macOS #Unigram
🌟 1 million Telegram Premium subscribers
Pavel Durov talked about Telegram monetization and how the results exceeded the expectations of the messenger team.
Brief talking points:
• Unlike other apps, Telegram team took a privacy-conscious approach to ads: no personal data should be used for targeting. Moreover, promoted messages should only be shown in public one-to-many channels.
• Telegram Premium, which was introduced just 5 months ago, quickly surpassed 1 million subscribers and has become one of the most successful examples of a social media subscription plan ever launched.
• While Telegram Premium still represents just a fraction of Telegram’s overall revenue, it is growing steadily every day, and one day may even rival ads.
• The features Telegram team is working on now will set the foundation for further financial growth for Telegram in 2023.
Virtual numbers for sale on Fragment platform, and more
Changes have been spotted in the source code of the Fragment auction platform, indicating the imminent arrival of virtual numbers for sale.
What is known:
• The server will issue the number itself.
• Separate page for getting the authorization code.
• Built-in crypto wallet.
Whether code retrieval will be implemented on blockchain technology, or whether Telegram will interact directly with Fragment is not yet known.
#TON #Auction
Telegram formally executed the court decision in India, user data was not transferred
Recently, the Indian resource LiveLaw.in reported Telegram had complied with the requirement of the Delhi Supreme Court and disclosed to the Indian authorities the names, phone numbers and IP addresses of a pirate channel administrators.
According to a source close to Telegram, the messenger sent what was, and nothing more. And if there was nothing, then nothing was sent. He also explained that not all information is available even to the management of the messenger, for example, without knowing a specific phone number, Telegram often cannot obtain any data about the user.
According to the source, the court decision was executed only formally, but in fact, no names, phone numbers and IP addresses of the "pirates" were transferred to the Indian authorities due to the impossibility of obtaining them by Telegram itself according to the data provided by the court.
This information was indirectly confirmed by Telegram representative Remy Vaughn in a comment to TechCrunch:
Telegram stores very limited or no data on its users. In most cases, we can’t even access any user data without specific entry points, and we believe this was the case here. Consequently, we can’t confirm that any private data has been shared in this instance.
Telegram Info has several Indian channels:
— Hindi @tginfohi
— Malayalam @tginfoml
— Bengali @tginfobn
— Tamil @tginfota
— Kannada @tginfokn
We are looking for native speakers who can volunteer to work on these branches. If you're interested, write to us @infowritebot
#India
New usernames on Fragment
The Fragment auction platform has expanded the list of user names available for sale and purchase.
At the beginning the usernames starting with A to H, later on I to Q was made available for sale. Now new user names are available from R to Z.
As we wrote on our channel @infotonen, usernames are solding as NFTs based on TON. They can be stored in cryptocurrency wallets and put up for sale both on marketplaces and on the official Telegram platform.
#auction
Profile Pictures for Your Contacts
• When editing your contacts, you can choose a picture for them – only you will see it on their profile.
• If you have a good profile picture for your contact, you can suggest it to them. It will take them just two taps to add it to their profile.
• Open a contact's Profile > Edit, then choose 'Set Photo for…' or 'Suggest Photo for…'.
The full list of changes is here.
Zero Storage Usage
• You can add separate auto-remove settings for cached media from Private Chats, Groups, and Channels – with exceptions for specific chats.
• The new pie charts help visualize what's taking up space, and dedicated tabs for Media, Files and Music let you clear the largest items in just a few taps.
• Check out the new options in Settings > Data and Storage > Storage Usage.
The full list of changes is here.
Bot API was updated to version 6.4
Forums
• Bots can now open, close, edit and toggle the visibility of the General Topic.
• Added support for new service messages, like ForumTopicEdited, GeneralForumTopicHidden and more.
• The method sendChatAction can now send actions to any thread or topic via the message_thread_id parameter.
Spoilers
• Added spoiler detection via the new has_media_spoiler field in the Message class.
• Bots can send media covered by a spoiler animation via the has_spoiler field in sendPhoto, sendVideo and sendAnimation.
Web Apps
• Added a native QR scanner popup, controllable via showScanQrPopup and closeScanQrPopup.
• Web Apps launched from the attachment menu can request clipboard text via readTextFromClipboard.
• Added a platform field, showing which platform the web app is being used on.
General
• Added the is_persistent field, to keep ReplyKeyboards open by default.
See the full changelog for details on the official website.
#update #BotAPI
Make an offer for an occupied username on Fragment
On the Fragment auction platform, you can make an offer for an occupied username that was previously not placed on the platform.
To leave a request to purchase the address, the buyer must pay a commission to the platform of 1 TON or more, depending on the offer, and specify the desired amount for which they are ready to buy the username.
The owner of the public name will receive a notification about the request to purchase his username directly in the chat with the Telegram service account. The message will give instructions on how to correctly place the address up for auction.
#auction
Telegram has launched a feedback bot
Owners of group chats are reporting that they have started receiving messages from a verified "Feedback Bot" account. It offers group owners the option to include chat topics and asks for feedback on this feature.
The @tginfoen editorial team believes that Telegram is trying to establish a feedback channel with users and learn about new messenger innovations in this way.
Currently, it is not possible to find the Feedback Bot account and start a dialog with it - instead, it initiates the dialog on its own.
Telegram's New Year update
The Beta versions of Telegram for Android, iOS and macOS have been updated with cool new features:
• Telegram's graphical editor for Android has undergone significant changes. It features new tools for drawing and text editing.
• Media Spoilers: Photos and videos can now be hidden under a spoiler in the same way as text.
• The Data & Memory section has improved cache management by category (e.g., media, files, music). Users can also set up automatic cache deletion in private messages, groups and channels.
• There is now an option to hide group members. When this feature is enabled, only non-anonymous group administrators will be shown in the list. However, the administrators themselves will still be able to see the full list.
• It is now possible to set a profile picture or video that can be seen by those who are not allowed to see the main avatar. In addition, the user may locally set an arbitrary avatar for any of their contacts: this avatar is only visible to the user who set it. You can also offer a picture or video from your address book to be set as your Telegram avatar.
• Other updates include an updated menu for creating contacts in Telegram for Android, the ability to generate QR codes for proxy servers, timecodes in audio files with descriptions on the timeline in Android, and an updated cloud-like counter opposite forums with unread topics. Android users will also notice new animations when clicking a link or navigating to a reply message.
#Android #iOS #macOS
The price of anonymous numbers will increase and availability will be limited
Starting at 12:00 PM UTC on December 13th, the price of a number will increase by 1 TON every 3 hours until it reaches 99 TON. The price will continue to increase for 11 days.
After that, only previously sold numbers that are put up for sale again by buyers will be available. It's likely that Telegram is deliberately creating a shortage of numbers to drive up the price.
It's unknown whether new pools of numbers will be available and when the next wave of numbers will be released. Of the 10 million +888 format numbers currently available, almost 17,000 have been sold.
#auction #numbers
Detailed Storage Usage and More on Android
• The "Storage Usage" menu section on Android has been redesigned to look familiar to users of the Telegram app for iOS.
• Now you can see how much space on the device each of the chats occupy.
• You can remove media from the cache from individual chats - both the whole thing and from a specific category: for example, you can remove only photos, videos, music or files.
The full list of changes is here.
Topics 2.0
• Topics are now available in groups with more than 100 members.
• Added a new vertical panel for easy switching to other chats.
• To go to the last active topic directly from the chat list, just click on the preview of the last message - now it works like a button.
• Added topic "General" to groups, which stores the history of messages before the group goes into topics mode. All service messages come here.
• This topic is available to all members, in case they want to view older posts, but administrators can rename or hide the General Questions topic from the main list.
• To view new messages from all topics at the same time, just switch to the General Chat mode.
• To make it easier for users to navigate the list, the message counters in topics that they have already viewed will be brighter, and in those where they have not yet looked, they will be lighter and more inconspicuous. It also depends on whether notifications are enabled in specific topics or not.
• In such groups, you can now pin up to 5 topics, and the number of pinned messages in each of them is not limited.
The full list of changes is here.
Sign up without a SIM card
• Now you can register a Telegram account without a SIM card using anonymous numbers based on the blockchain.
• By paying for a virtual number once, the user will own it until it is sold at auction.
• Buying one random number starting with the code +888 will cost the user 9 TON (a little over 16$ at the current exchange rate).
• To link an anonymous number to your account, you will need an up-to-date version of Telegram (for Android, iOS and macOS - 9.2 and later, and for Desktop - 4.4 and later).
• You can purchase these numbers on the Fragment platform.
The full list of changes is here.
Signup with Telegram without a physical SIM card
You can register a Telegram account without a physical SIM card by using anonymous numbers, the ownership of which is implemented through NFT. By paying once, the user will own the number until it will be sold on auction again.
You can purchase such numbers on the Fragment platform, a random number will cost 9 TON (approximately $16). A randomly obtained number can also be auctioned off, as you can with the usernames.
#TON
Less strict restrictions for subscribers of Telegram Premium and more details from @SpamBot
Now if an account reaches its limits @SpamBot will send an updated text about limits and reasons for reaching limits.
Moreover, the bot offers to buy Telegram Premium for an account to have fewer restrictions in the future.
The Telegram Info team supposes that after updating Telegram to version 9.2, the level of erroneous blocking may be increased due to the new anti-spam system.
For a detailed analysis of the rules of the antispam-system please send the response texts from @SpamBot to @infowritebot.
#ban #premium
Survey for the most popular Telegram client
At the end of the year we have a survey to find out which client is the most popular among our readers.
This time, the voting system has been redesigned, and the survey now includes four polls to vote for:
• Most popular Android client
• Most popular iOS client
• Most popular desktop client
• Most popular web client
We need your help in spreading the survey to get more accurate and representative data.
Results of previous years:
2019 • 2020
#survey
Pavel Durov spoke about the future of Telegram and decentralization
In his Telegram channel, Pavel Durov said about the blockchain industry, decentralization and the future of Telegram.
Here are brief theses:
• The blockchain industry was built on the promise of decentralization, but ended up being concentrated in the hands of a few who began to abuse their power. (He also mentioned FTX bankrupt, ed.)
• Cryptocurrency users should switch to trustless transactions and self-hosted wallets that don't rely on any single third party.
• It took only 5 weeks and 5 people including myself to put together Fragment — a fully decentralized auction platform.
• Fragment has been an amazing success, with 50 million USD worth of usernames sold there in less than a month and this week, Fragment will expand beyond usernames (Probably anonymous numbers, ed.)
• Telegram's next step is to build a set of decentralized tools, including non-custodial wallets and decentralized exchanges for millions of people to securely trade and store cryptocurrencies. This way we can fix the wrongs caused by the excessive centralization, which let down hundreds of thousands of cryptocurrency users.
Telegram discloses the names, phone numbers and IP addresses of the users administrating piracy channels to Indian authorities
According to a Delhi High Court order, Telegram has disclosed the details of the administrators of piracy channels that published training material of Campus Private Limited and its teacher Nitu Singh for various exams. The judge rejected the messenger's arguments that the servers where the information was stored were located in Singapore and did not fall under Indian jurisdiction.
Later, on August 30, the Delhi High Court demanded that the names, phone numbers and IP addresses of those local channel administrators accused of distributing pirated content be handed over to Indian authorities.
Telegram Info has several Indian channels:
— Hindi @tginfohi
— Malayalam @tginfoml
— Bengali @tginfobn
— Tamil @tginfota
— Kannada @tginfokn
We are looking for native speakers who can volunteer to work on these branches. If you're interested, write to us @infowritebot
#India