700 Million Users and Telegram Premium (original) (raw)

Telegram became one of the top-5 downloaded apps worldwide in 2022 and now has over 700 million monthly active users. This growth is solely from personal recommendations – Telegram has never paid to advertise its apps.

As Telegram keeps growing at rocket speed, many users have expressed their will to support our team. Today we're launching Telegram Premium – a subscription that lets you support Telegram's continued development and gives you access to exclusive additional features.

This will allow us to offer all the resource-heavy features users have asked for over the years, while preserving free access to the most powerful messenger on the planet.

Telegram Premium

By subscribing to Telegram Premium, users unlock doubled limits, 4 GB file uploads, faster downloads, exclusive stickers and reactions, improved chat management – and a whole lot more.

At the same time, all existing features that users have come to expect and rely on for nearly a decade remain free. Moreover, non-premium users will be able to enjoy some of Premium's benefits: for example, download the extra-large documents and view stickers sent by premium users, as well as tap to increase counters on premium reactions that were already added to a message.

The contributions of premium subscribers will help improve and expand the app for decades to come, while Telegram will remain free, independent and uphold its users-first values, redefining how a tech company should operate.

4 GB Uploads

Any user can upload large files and media, each up to 2 GB in size and enjoy unlimited storage in the Telegram Cloud for free. With Telegram Premium, subscribers will now be able to send 4 GB files – enough space for 4 hours of 1080p video, or 18 days of high-quality audio.

All Telegram users can download these extra-large documents, regardless of whether they are subscribed to Telegram Premium.

Faster Downloads

Premium subscribers are able to download media and files at the fastest possible speed. You can access everything in your unlimited cloud storage as fast as your network can keep up.

Doubled Limits

Premium users get increased limits for almost everything in the app. With Premium, you can follow up to 1000 channels, create up to 20 chat folders with up to 200 chats each, add a fourth account to any Telegram app, pin 10 chats in the main list and save up to 10 favorite stickers.

You can also write a longer bio and include a link in it. Similarly, Premium allows adding more characters to media captions. Finding the proper way to respond to any message will be easier with up to 400 favorite GIFs. Lastly, Premium users can reserve up to 20 public t.me links, making any group or channel you create stand out with a short and concise link.

Voice-to-Text

Voice messages can be converted to text for those times you don't want to listen, but want to see what it says. You can rate transcriptions to help improve them.

Unique Stickers

Dozens of stickers now have impressive full-screen animations, which Premium users can send in any chat to add extra emotion and expressive effects that are visible for all users. This premium sticker collection will be updated monthly by Telegram artists.

You can quickly find Premium Stickers from all your packs in a dedicated section of your sticker panel, below 'Recently Used'.

Unique Reactions

Premium users also unlock more ways to react to messages, with over 10 new emoji like (and the new favorites ).

Chat Management

Telegram Premium includes new tools to organize your chat list – like changing your default chat folder so the app always opens on a custom folder or, say, Unread instead of All Chats.

To change your default folder, press and hold a folder in your chat list > Reorder > and drag your preferred folder to the first space.

Additionally, subscribers can enable a setting in Privacy and Security to automatically archive and mute new chats, helping organize even the busiest chat lists.

Animated Profile Pictures

The profile videos of premium users will animate for everyone throughout the app – including in chats and the chat list. Let everyone see your new look, or flex your creativity with a unique looping animation.

Premium Badges

All premium users get a special badge that appears next to their name in the chat list, chat headers, and member lists in groups – showing that they help support Telegram and are part of the club that receives exclusive features first.

Premium App Icons

New icons are available that premium users can add to their Home Screen to better match their personality or wallpaper. Choose from a premium star, night sky, or turbo-plane.

No Ads

In some countries, Sponsored Messages are shown in large, public one-to-many channels. These minimalist, privacy-conscious advertisements help support Telegram's operating costs, but will no longer appear for subscribers of Telegram Premium.

Premium subscriptions help Telegram pay not only for the additional expenses of premium features, but also support the free version of Telegram for everyone.

Improvements for Everyone

While we are going to release more exciting features for Premium subscribers, we will keep implementing free features available for everyone, and do it faster than any other massively popular app. This update is no exception – it adds join requests for public groups, an animated screen for external sharing, improved bot descriptions, and more.

Join Requests for Public Groups

Public groups can now enable join requests – allowing group admins to review new members before approving them to write in the chat. Users who open the group can tap Request to Join, adding their request to a list that only admins can access.

Admins can reach out to users who want to join and have a chat to cover the rules, make sure they're a good fit or even plan a welcome party. When an admin reaches out, Telegram lets the user know they're reaching out as a group admin.

Owners of public groups can enable join requests via Group Info > Edit > Group Type > Who Can Send Messages > select Only Members > enable Approve New Members.

Verification Badges in Chats

Public figures and organizations can verify their group, channel or bot – receiving a verification badge to show users that messages are coming from a confirmed source. In addition to profiles, search results and the chat list, these badges now appear at the top of the chat. This makes it even easier to identify verified sources of information.

If you're verified on at least two social networks, you can verify your group, channel or bot.

Better Bots

Bots on Telegram can help you take quizzes, accept payments and even replace whole websites. Bot developers can now include a photo or video in the “What can this bot do?” section of their bots to show off their features.

Bots that are integrated into the attachment menu can now also work in groups and channels in addition to one-on-one chats.

The Bot API is a free and open platform, available to everyone. If you're looking to build your own bot, check out this page.

Improved Chat Previews on Android

This update brings improved chat previews on par with iOS. Now you can scroll through them to view the whole chat without marking it as read. New buttons have been added to let you mark the chat as read, mute it, pin it or delete it.

To preview a chat, simply press and hold its profile picture in your chat list.

Automatic Saving to Gallery on Android

The option to automatically save media to Gallery is back with renewed vigor: saving media can now be enabled and disabled separately for chats with users, groups or channels.

With the ability to send files up to 2 GB (or 4 GB), users can easily share large media items from other apps directly to Telegram on any mobile platform. This saves both time and storage space – so you don't have to save the file before sending it in Telegram.

When sending large files shared from another app on iOS, you can now watch an animated progress bar to find out if you have enough time for a tea or if you should stick with espresso.

Animated Profile Picture Creator on macOS

Users on macOS now have a quick way to generate a custom profile picture – choose any sticker or animated emoji as the focus, and add a colorful gradient background. You can set one for your own profile, or as a group or channel photo – making it easy to create a themed icon for chats without searching for stock photos.

To create one of these, go to Settings or a Chat Info page, click Edit > click the Profile Picture > select Sticker or Emoji.

Faster and Stronger

This update includes over 100 fixes and optimizations to the mobile and desktop apps – eliminating bugs, improving speed, and expanding minor features. iOS users with the latest iPhones and iPads get significantly smoother animations (120 FPS) throughout the app. Android users will notice better audio and video quality in voice and video messages, along with options to set alternative app icons, clear all recent stickers at once and translate user bios or chat descriptions.

This update is being rolled out gradually. If your app is not offering you to update, please wait – the new version will become available soon.

Thank You

Today is an important day in the history of Telegram – marking not only a new milestone, but also the beginning of Telegram's sustainable monetization. We believe that Telegram's development should be driven primarily by its users, not advertisers. This way our users will always remain our main priority.

June 19, 2022 The Telegram Team