Premium users get access to additional settings, like instant chat translation, and the ability to restrict who can send them text and voice messages. Similar to other social platforms, Telegram users can post stories, a type of short-form content. In June 2021, an update introduced a new bot menu where users can browse and send commands while in a chat with a bot. Bots are also commonly used for businesses to communicate with customers as the bot APIs integrate with communication platforms so that Telegram messages can be sent and received in an omnichannelinbox.

For the first time, Telegram apologizes and will remove content

The NDR stated that they had not noticed these ads before, but closed the channel, stating that an advertisement-based accumulation of Toncoin, albeit unsolicited and not withdrawn, was unacceptable for a German public media broadcaster. In August 2025, the German public media broadcaster NDR closed its tagesschau Telegram channel, which published summaries of news stories from the German television news service by the same name. The most common mode of fraud involves scammers sending messages to unsuspecting users, offering part-time online jobs which comprise a series of tasks. It is estimated that the bot contains data from 26 million Ukrainians registered in the Diia application. The company has a verified channel called „Stop Child Abuse“, where daily statistics on the number of groups and channels banned for sharing illegal materials are posted. British far-right publication TR.news, following multiple deplatformings, launched a Telegram channel to spread its posts and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue reported that Irish far-right groups grew substantially between 2019 and 2020.

Telegram has stated that the company will never serve advertisements in private chats. A distinctive feature of this version is the ability to view channels/groups on a specific topic without censorship, which cannot be viewed from an app distributed from Google Play or the Apple Store due to their policies.citation needed For encrypted chats (branded as Secret Chats), Telegram uses a custom-built symmetric encryption scheme called MTProto. In October 2024, Telegram launched a verification platform, called Telegram Gateway, allowing third-party services to authenticate their users by sending verification codes via Telegram. In December 2020, Telegram launched a Bugs and Suggestions platform, where users can submit bug reports and suggestion cards for new features.

Top 3 alternatives installed by our users

On 24 April 2020, Telegram announced that it had reached 400 million monthly active users. According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, as of October 2019, Telegram had 300 million monthly active users worldwide. By March 2018, that number had doubled, with Telegram reaching 200 million monthly active users. On 24 March 2014, Telegram announced that it had reached 35 million monthly users and 15 million daily active users.

Certain approved bots are also able to integrate into the attachment menu, making them accessible in any chat. Since 2017, Telegram users have been able to initiate one-on-one calls in private chats. Similarly, groups and channels can have content protection enabled, which prevents screenshots, forwarding and downloading of media. Users can freely join public chats and find them using the in-app search function, while private chats require an invitation. Groups are large multi-user chats that support up to 200,000 members and can be public or private.

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• According to press reports, prior to the bonds placement, Durov had rejected an investment offer for a 5–10% stake in the company as well as several undisclosed ones, valuing the company in a $30–40 billion range.
• It allows users to exchange messages, share media and files, and hold private and group voice or video calls as well as public livestreams.
• Channel owners are able to use Telegram to create giveaways, randomly awarding channel members with prizes such as Telegram Premium subscriptions to their followers, based on certain criteria.

In December 2015, two researchers from Aarhus University published a report in which they demonstrated that MTProto 1.0 did not achieve indistinguishability under chosen-ciphertext attack (IND-CCA) or authenticated encryption. The EFF said that the results „should not be read as endorsements of individual tools or guarantees of their security“, and that they were merely indications that the projects were „on the right track“. It received points for having communications encrypted in transit, having its code open to independent review, having the security design properly documented, and having completed a recent independent security audit. Telegram’s default chat function received a score of 4 out of 7 points on the scorecard. It noted that while the message data is encrypted on the device, it could not analyze the transmission due to a lack of source code.

• These platforms also enable businesses to add Telegram chat widget to their websites and gives them the option to automate conversations or let human agents reply.
• It is automatically updated and will most likely get new versions faster than the apps in the Play Store and App Store.
• The company has a verified channel called „Stop Child Abuse“, where daily statistics on the number of groups and channels banned for sharing illegal materials are posted.
• In August 2022, Telegram launched an emoji platform where users could upload their own custom emoji, either in animated or static versions.
• In 2018, Telegram sent a message to all Iranian users stating that the Telegram Talai and Hotgram unofficial clients are not secure.

TopLive – Live Video Chat App

In July 2024, ESET reported a vulnerability allowed malicious files being sent to users masked in multimedia. On 30 March 2020, an Elasticsearch database holding 42 million records containing user IDs and phone numbers of Iranian users was exposed online without a password. The organization was favorable to Telegram’s secure chats and partially free code but criticized the mandatory transfer of contact data to Telegram’s servers and the lack of an imprint or address on the service’s website. Since July 2016, Line has also applied end-to-end encryption to all of its messages by default, though it has also been criticized for being susceptible to replay attacks and the lack of forward secrecy between clients. When the user assigns a local password in the desktop application, data is also locally encrypted. Pavel Durov has argued that this is because it helps to avoid third-party unsecured backups, and to allow users to access messages and files from any device.

In June 2015, Telegram launched a platform for third-party developers to create bots. The interface shows users a visual representation of their storage usage and also lets them sort their cached media by size to clear specific items. Auto download settings can also be applied based on chat type such as group, channel or private. Telegram clients can turn off media autoplay and automatic downloads for both WiFi and mobile data, adjusting them for media type and size.

User numbers

As of 2023, Telegram Premium can be acquired via in-app purchases facilitated by Apple and Google, directly via Telegram’s @PremiumBot, or with cryptocurrency on the Fragment platform. They were removed in 2024, with Durov saying that they had had „issues with bots and scammers“. People Nearby and Groups Near Me were features that helped users contact people in their physical vicinity, using their phone’s GPS location. Reactions were first added to Telegram in 2021 and expanded to include more emoji options for Premium users. In September 2021, Telegram added interactive emoji, a type of animated emoji which also play a fullscreen effect in the chat.

The desktop app runs efficiently even on low-end hardware, consuming minimal system resources and offering stable performance. Animated stickers, emojis, and chat backgrounds add personality without clutter. Telegram on the desktop is the version of the free popular cloud-based messaging app developed by Pavel Durov.

In March 2021, Telegram launched a bonds offering to cover the debt and fund further growth of the app. The company agreed to pay an $18.5 million penalty and return $1.22 billion to Gram purchasers. In January and February 2018, the company ran a private sale of futures contracts for Grams, raising around $1.7 billion. In June 2024, Telegram launched Telegram Stars to facilitate in-app purchases of digital goods and services, in compliance with policies from the App Store and Play Store. Durov said the bond sale „will further solidify our position as an independent platform that is able to challenge the ‚Goliaths‘ of our industry“.

According to press reports, prior to the bonds placement, Durov had rejected an investment offer for a 5–10% stake in the company as well as several undisclosed ones, valuing the company in a $30–40 billion range. A day later, the Mubadala Investment Company stated that Russia’s sovereign wealth fund participated in its deal undisclosed through the Russia-UAE joint investment platform to buy convertible bonds. The funding was required to cover the debts amounting to $625.7 million, including $433 million to investors who bought futures for Gram tokens in 2018 and included purchasers such as David Yakobashvili. On 15 March 2021, Telegram conducted a five-year public bonds placement worth $1 billion.

Premium users have the ability to set any chat folder as the default screen in the app while regular users will always see the full chat list when first opening the app. Messages from private chats can be forwarded, with an option to hide the original sender’s identity or to hide captions from media messages. Reactions are always on in private chats and can be enabled by admins in groups and channels with the ability to allow or exclude specific reactions. Users have the option to delete messages and whole chats for both themself and other participants.

This partially addresses the concern about the lack of scrutiny while confirming the formal security of the protocol’s latest version. In December 2020, a study titled „Automated Symbolic Verification of Telegram’s MTProto 2.0“ was published, confirming the security of the updated MTProto 2.0 and reviewing it while pointing out several theoretical vulnerabilities. Criticisms were also aimed at Telegram’s use of a custom-designed encryption protocol. The editorial staff was made aware of the advertisement by a Telegram user and the online magazine Übermedien. This is seen as an issue for non-profit organizations and similar entities who want to operate a Telegram channel. As of August 2025, there was no option for channel owners to opt out of this mechanism.

Privacy and security features

Telegram comes with one default sticker pack, and users can install additional sticker packs provided by third-party contributors. Telegram introduced affiliate programs in December 2024 that allow developers to create an affiliate program for their bot or mini app. Interfaces can be adjusted to match the app’s theme even if it changes while interacting with the bot.

The protocol was developed by Nikolai Durov and other developers at Telegram and, as of version 2.0, is https://chickenroadapp.in/ based on 256-bit symmetric AES encryption, 2048-bit RSA encryption and Diffie–Hellman key exchange. In July 2018, Telegram introduced their online authorization and identity-management system, Telegram Passport, for platforms that require real-life identification. When an author adds links to YouTube, Vimeo, or Twitter, the service allows you to embed their content directly in the article.

Whenever a new device successfully logs in to a user’s account, a special service notification is sent and a login alert is displayed in the chat list of their other devices. Once launched, a group voice chat will remain active and open to all group members until an admin specifically closes it. Group voice and video chats support picture-in-picture video, as well as sharing one’s screen, creating a recording of the call, noise suppression and selective muting. Telegram added group voice chats in December 2020 and group video chats in June 2021. Channels are one-way feeds where the channel owner or admins can post content while followers can only read, react and comment, if comments have been enabled. Groups and channels also support polls, which can be open or anonymous and can support multiple choices.