Telegram Premium officially debuted for a monthly subscription price of $4.99, expanding current functions and a few exclusive features.
Telegram Premium
As per a news story by The Verge, Telegram chief executive officer (CEO) Pavel Durov first mentioned the subscription tier idea as early as way back in 2020.
In the middle of 2022, Telegram Premium formally becomes a reality, giving millions of its users a chance to experience a bulk version of the privacy-focused service.
Not to mention that the paid service also gives the messaging platform new means to monetize without the help of advertising.
The messaging app said in a blog post that: "Today is an important day in the history of Telegram."
It further highlighted that the rollout of the all-new Premium tier is "the beginning of Telegram's sustainable monetization."
The Telegram boss also teased the new Premium tier early this June, explaining why they are pushing for the new paid service.
Durov disclosed that users of the privacy-focused app have been clamoring for more bandwidth and storage for massive file-sharing. But the tech exec says that expanding it is going to mess up the servers of Telegram.
However, its founder has come up with a realization. He previously shared that we realized that "the only way to let our most demanding fans get more while keeping our existing features free is to make those raised limits a paid option."
So, it appears that the Premium tier is the answer to the clamor of its power users.
Telegram Premium Exclusive Features
Now that the new Telegram Premium tier has officially rolled out, here are its exclusive features.
The paying subscribers of the messaging app enjoy "Doubled Limits." To be more precise, Premium allows them to upload files of up to 4GB, an upgrade from the 2GB limit for its free version.
The download speed also gets twice as fast. It should be best for massive media files now that the upload limit has expanded.
It also lets users join up to 1,000 channels. They could create up to 20 folders to stuff up to 200 chats. What's more, they could pin up to 10 chats and sign in a total of four accounts on the app.
On top of that, the new tier is not all about the boring stuff. It also comes with exclusive stickers with full-screen animations and emoji reactions. Paying users could also play around with an animated profile picture.
A new feature that turns voice messages into text also arrives in Premium, and ads on public channels vanish for its users.