Telegram for Android and iOS Brings Voice Chats and more

Telegram has rolled out a new update bringing Voice Chats – persistent conference calls that members can join and leave as they please, and more.

Any Telegram group can now become a voice chat room that is always on. Voice Chats run in parallel to existing text and media-based communication, adding a live layer of ephemeral talk to the group. They can be used as virtual office spaces for teams or informal lounges for any community.

While Voice Chats are not group calls, they can achieve similar goals – at the same time offering flexibility instead of old school scheduling. In larger groups, they also provide serendipitous opportunities for talking to people. Groups with active voice chats have a special bar at the top that shows who is talking at the moment (and even how loud they are).

After joining a voice chat, you are free to move around the app, browse conversations and send messages. You stay connected to the chat and the microphone controls remain on screen so that you can quickly mute and unmute yourself at any time.

You can chat with whomever is online or invite more people via the menu. Voice Chats can accommodate a few thousand participants, which means they’ll work for everything from consulting family members while out shopping to a massive live event. Finally, Voice Chats show animations.

Telegram says that In the coming weeks, listening to your feedback, they will be improving noise suppression, and adding more features like video and screen sharing.

Create a Voice Chat

To create a Voice Chat, open the profile of any group where you’re an admin, tap (⋯) or (⋮) and select Start Voice Chat.

Other Features

With today’s update, stickers will load even faster than before – and show a shimmering outline of what you’re about to see.

When editing a message or caption, as you approach the maximum message length, a counter will appear showing how many remaining characters you have lef

Telegram for Android

If you’re on Android, you can enjoy the full Voice Chat experience with a system-wide floating widget that shows your mic controls and who is currently talking, even when Telegram is in the background. Santa is on Android too – and he needs his sleigh navigator open at all times.

Users on Android devices can now move their Telegram app data from internal storage to their SD card, allowing those with minimal storage to save more media and files and maximize their Telegram experience.

This update brings some new animations throughout the Android app – when tapping the New Message button, opening profiles, managing chat folders and anywhere you see message counters.

Android users can now quickly edit a photo which they’ve already sent to add effects, drawings or stickers with the media editor. This was previously only available on iOS.

Telegram for iOS

On iOS, you can have Siri read incoming messages aloud in your headphones. Open iOS Settings > Notifications > Announce Messages and set Telegram to ON to stay up to date on your chats..

When editing a photo, iOS users can tap the pen button to quickly edit and send back a photo they have received.

Other Platforms

On Telegram Desktop and in the native macOS app, you can choose a push-to-talk key (Caps Lock) for Voice Chats, to control your mic even when Telegram is not focused.

Telegram are launching a public Bug and Suggestion Platform:

We’ll be rolling out the ability to suggest new features and report bugs gradually to make sure each submission gets the attention it deserves. All Telegram users are already welcome to view existing entries and vote on them.