Telegram, arguably WhatsApp’s biggest competitor, continuously pushes what a private messaging platform should aspire to be. In their last update of the year, the company has introduced new cool features, which we will look at below.
The first one, which is a favourite of mine, is that you can now hide your messages using a spoiler effect. The spoiler effect will only be lifted when the recipient taps on the message. It is not a necessarily new feature on the platform, but it was previously only limited to text messages. This new implementation extends the functionality to photos and videos.
When discussing a movie for instance and want to send your friends a clip that contains spoilers, you can now hide the video with the spoiler tag so that those who do not want to view it can ignore it conveniently. To get the spoiler overlay, tap the 3 dot menu in the top right corner of the media selection tab.
If you find yourself struggling with how much space the Telegram app consumes, then this next feature is right up your alley. Moving forward, the Telegram app will show you a pie chart which contains data on what is taking up space in your device. After taking a look and identifying the culprits, you can then delete them to free up space. Deleted images, audio and video can then be redownloaded from the Telegram cloud, should you need them later on. To further fine-tune how you manage storage, you can set up rules on auto deletion for new and existing chats.
Other additions included in the update include Premium Telegram users getting 10 new animated emojis, an introduction of new progress animations and drawing tools to all users and the ability to set up custom profile photos for your friends. You can also suggest to them to use the picture that you have selected.
Finally, admins managing a group with more than 100 members can now choose to hide the member list. This is with the aim of cutting down on the risk of rogue users spamming members with messages which are more often than not trying to find easy targets for scams. If you have not yet received the update, head over to the Play Store and check whether there is a pending update.
