Telegram Update Brings Group Topics, Collectible Usernames, More: All Details

Telegram has rolled out a major new update that, in addition to improvements, brings new features. It showcases Topics in large groups, adding collectible usernames that can be secured with blockchain and bought, sold or exchanged online. Also introduced is Voice-to-Text for video messages that requires a paid subscription and essentially converts any video messages to text. The update is available to Telegram users on both Android and iOS platforms. While most of the new features will be made available for both operating systems, there are some specific features that have also been created for each platform.

Among the larger updates are Team Themes, which group admins can enable in their Group Settings. These chats essentially act as individual chats in a group, so they also have their own shared media and notification settings. All the usual features available in groups (like polls, ping messages and bots) will also be available in Themes. Follow Telegram The new Topics feature is currently only available in large groups (with over 200 members) and will be rolled out with a different set of tools to smaller groups later this year.

The new update also introduces collection usernames that allow users to specify multiple aggregation usernames for each of their accounts and public chats. Collected usernames are secured by Telegram’s TON blockchain network (which went live earlier this year) and can be buy or sell using a new platform called Fragment, made for it. Collected usernames can be less than 5 characters long and allow users to create unique usernames. Telegram claims that the user has full control over the collectible username once acquired and it can be disabled as needed (making them invisible on the network), but without losing the name .

The voice-to-text feature has been available to Telegram Premium subscribers for a while, allowing them to quickly convert voice messages to text. The new update will now also allow subscribers to convert video messages to text. Paid subscribers also get access to 12 new emoji packs that can be used in messages, captions, and even in statuses.

Among other improvements and updates is a redesigned Night Mode for iOS, which according to Telegram makes colors look more balanced and includes better blur effects when scrolling through chats. Users on Android can now change the text size by changing the text size in the chat settings, which will make the size of all displayed chat text larger or smaller. The new update also brings 4 new interactive emojis that essentially play full-screen effects in live chats.