WhatsApp Rival Telegram Adds Major Features in Latest Update

Published Date : Jan 06, 2020

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Telegram has updated plenty of features for its app recently. WhatsApp’s evergreen rival rolled out a series of features to enhance chat privacy and make the messaging platform more attractive and appealing with certain cosmetic modifications.

The latest Telegram app update version 5.13 for Android and iOS devices introduced customization features to the chat interface of Telegram in the new year. This means that users can now select themes, change the color gradients, and designs for the chat boxes as well as the chat background.

This new Telegram feature can also be shared with other participants on the instant messaging platform. The new options can be spotted in the Chat Settings and offer three variants called Classic, Night and Day tabs.

New Telegram Feature offers three variants called Classic, Night and Day tabs in Chat — Image Source: Gsmarena

“This update incorporates dozens of cool new looks that you can apply to your background. Our personal favorites are the Parisian and Math motifs, with a special one for the New Year’s Eve,” Telegram addressed in a blog post regarding the latest updates.

The next feature updated by Telegram is a privacy feature that enables users to send messages to recipients only when they are online. But this feature is applicable only when the concerned recipients allows you to view their online status.

Sharing locations is now made easy with Telegram’s recent update. Now you can just tap on a place to select it, which is showing up on the map. This will enable users to search and share a venue location easily compared to the need for typing and scrolling that had to be done earlier.

Those who listen to podcasts and audiobooks on Telegram; for them, the app has been modified to now resume the playback precisely at the point it was stopped last time. Thus, it means that now the app has memory for files that are longer than 20 minutes.

There is also a fast-forwarding button on the playback (with 2x speed), to manually skip to the point from where you wish to resume the audio file. iPhone users would even be able to move back and forth on the audio file by holding the progress bar and sliding the finger down, followed by moving it right or left.

There is also a bit of tweaking done on the Telegram app for the way search mode functions. iPhone users can now choose to remain in search mode even when they are selecting multiple messages simultaneously for a specific keyword.

iPhone users can now change the font size easily. They can also switch quickly between accounts now. There is further an option introduced to select an external browser from the application.

Leaving a group on the Telegram application for iPhone users will now be easy as they don’t need to scroll down the long list of group members. The list will automatically appear in the collapsed state, and users can locate the Leave Group option without having to scroll down.

Further, iPhone users will now gain more freedom to choose which chats can appear on the iOS Share Sheet.
Coming to the Android platform alterations made by Telegram, they have introduced fun animations on the chat interface, which appear when jumping between messages or opening the search mode, etc.

Android users like iOS users can now effortlessly copy and paste a part of messages. Apart from this, the newest Telegram update now lets Android users select the video quality while sharing videos and also offers a new card-style interface while sharing contact information. Users will also have the ability to disable auto voice responses as soon as they are done with listening to voice messages.

One more final touch by Telegram for the Android devices is the quick switch button to the Night Mode. The quick switch button is positioned on top of the slide-over menu.

On iOS devices, the messaging app opens in the Dark Mode by default if such a setting has been preset by the iOS user for the iPhone itself. The reverse of this happens in tune with the iOS device when it is in the Light Mode. Users can also choose to selectively retain either the Dark or Light theme as per their preference by altering the settings accordingly.

Therefore, the messaging app which already has some unique features like end-to-end message encryption, message scheduling options, disappearing chats, etc. has only bundled more exclusive features with Telegram’s most recent update. Users can avail of all the features by installing the available updated version of the app.

Snigdha

Snigdha is a technical content writer with expertise in the field of science & technology. Though she has a very diverse academic and professional profile yet she finds writing to be a creative form that she was unable to explore so far. When not writing, she can be found indulging in other forms of creativity like painting or travelling.