As it hit its 700 million active users milestone, Dubai-based encrypted messaging platform Telegram officially launched its premium services on June 19.
Telegram Premium essentially doubles the number of capabilities each user has on the app. Doubled limits mean users may follow up to 1,000 channels, have up to four accounts on the app, pin ten chats to the main list, and even save up to ten of their favorite stickers. Users also have the option to create up to twenty chat folders, each with a capacity of around 200 conversations.
Premium users are also entitled to file uploads of up to 4GB, rapid downloads, and improved chat management, among other services.
The premium service also gives users access to an exclusive line of stickers and reaction emojis to enhance the messaging experience, along with ad-free site browsing, animated profile pictures, and voice-to-text conversion.
Location-Dependent Costing
Aside from these features, Telegram is also introducing location-based pricing instead of a standard rate across the board for global users.
For example, Telegram users in India who use the app on iPhones will need to pay US$6 monthly for the premium service. Meanwhile, users in Spain will be charged $5.77 a month regardless of which device they’re using. At press time, however, Telegram has yet to disclose its full range of country-specific fees for the premium edition.
But the introduction of the premium service does not mean that Telegram will discontinue the standard features included in the free edition of the app.
Likewise, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov assured users that there would always be a free edition of Telegram and that the company would stick to its privacy-centric approach to online messaging.
General Improvements for Better Messaging
Aside from introducing premium services, Telegram also announced improvements in general to its original application.
For both free and premium users, the app now allows users to join public groups and post verification badges in chats to ensure content comes from a valid source. It will also provide more helpful bots that can cover everything from accepting online payments to creating polls and quizzes and operating-system-specific improvements for Android and iOS devices.
Telegram’s developers added that the app’s latest update had been equipped with fixes for faster loading time and response and the resolution of several performance issues.
One of the Fastest-growing Messaging Platforms
In an announcement on the platform’s official website, brand executives stated that Telegram had become one of the top five messaging apps worldwide since the second quarter of 2022.
They cited that the platform’s growth was due to personal recommendations among its users rather than conventional and online advertising.
