Telegram brings Chat Themes, Live Stream Recording and more

Telegram has rolled out a new update bringing Chat Themes, Interactive Emoji, Read Receipts in Groups and Live Stream Recording and more.

Chat Themes

In this update, Telegram introduces new themes for individual chats. Telegram have created 8 new themes that you can apply to specific private chats. Each of the new themes features colourful gradient message bubbles, beautifully animated backgrounds and unique background patterns.

Both you and your chat partner can choose the theme for both sides and make any conversation easy to recognize, even when you can’t find your glasses. This way you can set different themes for chats with co-workers and family members.

To set a theme for your chat on Android, tap the Chat Header > ⋮ > Change Colors. On iOS, tap the Chat Header > ⋯ > Change Colors. Your chat partner will see the theme if they are also using the latest version of Telegram. Each theme comes with a day and night version and will follow your app’s night mode settings – whether you keep it dark all day, or have your chats follow the sun.

Telegram says that these first 8 themes are just the beginning and their designers are already working on adding more.

Interactive Emoji

Telegram have created a new way of sharing emotion in real time. Send a single emoji to any private chat, then tap on the animated emoji to unleash a fullscreen effect.

If both you and your chat partner have the chat open, the animations and vibrations play simultaneously on your devices, so you feel close even when you’re far apart. Your chat partner will only see the effects if they are also using the latest version of Telegram.

Read Receipts in Small Groups

Both chat themes and interactive emoji currently only work in private chats. But this update also includes a big change for groups.

Group messages are marked as read (✓✓) as soon as one other member sees them. In small groups, you can now also select a message you sent to see which group members have read it. To protect users’ privacy, read receipts in groups are only stored for 7 days after the message was sent.

Record Live Streams and Video Chats

Telegram hosts millions of communities that can create live events for unlimited viewers. Whether it’s a once-in-a-lifetime concert or an everyday algebra class, admins can now record Live Streams and Video Chats to publish them for those who missed the live version.

Admins can start a recording right from the Live Stream or Video Chat menu – with options to record Video and Audio or Only Audio. To record video, choose an orientation for the final video file, Portrait or Landscape. After you finish recording or end the broadcast, the file is instantly uploaded to your Saved Messages. Tap ⋮ or ⋯ to open the broadcast menu and start recording. While recording, a red dot appears next to the title of the broadcast.