Topics in Groups, Collectible Usernames, Voice-to-Text for Video Messages and More

Today's update adds topics to organize discussions in large groups, a new form of collectible usernames secured on a blockchain, an option to convert video messages to text, and much more.

Topics in Groups

Telegram groups can support huge communities with hundreds of thousands of users. To keep these chats easy to read any groups, regardless of their size, can now enable topics and create separate spaces for any subject.

Topics function as individual chats within the group – supporting their own shared media and notification settings. Members are free to chat in any topic from Anime to Zoology, using all their favorite features like polls, pinned messages and bots.

This feature is intended specifically for large groups, adding new ways to customize their chats and promote discussion. Later this year, we expect to introduce a different set of tools, tailored to small groups. If you want to give topics a test drive, try them out in this public group.

Group admins can enable topics in their Group Settings, and can control who is allowed to create and manage topics in Permissions.

As with anything on Telegram, further updates will bring more powerful tools for both admins and users of this feature.

Collectible Usernames

Telegram users can make it easy for others to contact them or find their public groups and channels via usernames. You can now assign collectible usernames to each of your accounts and public chats.

The ownership of collectible usernames is secured by TON, a fast and scalable blockchain network. They can be bought and sold through a new platform, giving a simple and secure way to acquire and exchange valuable Telegram domains.

Collectible usernames work just like basic @usernames, they appear in Global Search results and have their own links that can be used outside of Telegram: username.t.me and t.me/username.

Voice-to-Text for Video Messages

Since the launch of Telegram Premium, subscribers have been able to convert any voice message to text – for times when it's more convenient to read than listen along. This update adds the same functionality to video messages, allowing Premium users to get an instant text transcript.

New Emoji Packs

While thousands of users experiment with uploading custom emoji sets, Telegram artists have completed 12 new emoji packs. Premium users can use these emoji in any messages and captions – or set them as statuses for Halloween:

Redesigned Night Mode for iOS

Dark themes have been updated for users on iOS, making colors more balanced with better blurring effects as you scroll in chats and the chat list.

Resizing Text on Android

Changing your text size in Chat Settings on Android now increases the size of all chat text – including link previews, reply headers and more.

Minor Design Improvements

A new animation has been added when you swipe left to reply. Tapping a user's phone number in their profile page will open a new menu with several call options. And for those brief moments when Telegram is loading messages in a group or channel, you'll see new pulsing placeholders.

New Interactive Emoji and Reactions

For those times when you’re studying, sleeping or being suspicious, this update brings 4 new interactive emoji that play full-screen effects in 1-on-1 chats and can also be used as reactions. Additionally, all users can celebrate the spooky season with 3 more reactions in any chat.

That’s all for today’s changes. We apologize that we weren’t able to celebrate Halloween on time this year, as Apple took two weeks to review the update.

You can read this post from our founder for the full story – and how we can fight back.

November 5, 2022
The Telegram Team