Telegram enters 2023 with a bang.
The popular secure messaging app recently added a handful of features that offers "pleasant reasons" to remember 2022 as the year changes.
The new features are now available to everyone using the Telegram app for free.
Telegram 2023 Update Features
To start with, Telegram's new update comes with spoiler formatting, allowing users to hide any text, photo, or video from their recipient, per the app's official blog.
They, in turn, will see a shimmering layer when a photo or video is hidden with his new feature.
To use this new feature, users must select one or more items and tap the ellipsis button at the upper right corner of the app's screen and choose "Hide with Spoiler."
This new feature complements Telegram's new drawing and text tools well. With Telegram revamping its media editor, users can now use the app's drawing tools to dynamically change width based on drawing speed and automatically smooth their lines, per The Verge.
Photobombers, sensitive information and other blur-worthy items can now be blurred using the app's new blur and eyedropper tool.
Also, Telegram made adding text to photos and videos easier, with the company allowing users to change its size, font, and background at will.
Also, custom animated emojis are now available to all users regardless if they have a Telegram Premium subscription.
In addition to spoiler formatting, Telegram adds the Zero Storage Usage feature that lets users remove media and documents from their phone storage and re-download them from their Telegram cloud at any time.
Previously, Telegram users could only set a limit to the app's cache size or enable auto-remove unused items after a certain period.
This update also adds separate auto-remove settings for cached media from private chats, Groups, and Channels. However, specific chats do not have access to this feature.
Lastly, Telegram adds a pie chart to help users visualize how much data is being used for media, files, and music, allowing them to clear the largest items with only a few taps.
Interestingly, iOS users can now enjoy this feature at top speed - at the same response time as those using Telegram on Android phones.
Other Additional Updates
As for the more minor features, Telegram now lets users set a custom profile picture for their contacts that only appears for them, per GSMArena. However, they can also suggest this new profile picture to them, with the contact only needing to make two taps to add it to their profile.
Additionally, users can also set a public profile picture for most people to see aside from certain users. Users can also set their profile picture's privacy to "Nobody" and exempt some users or groups.
The company also added the ability to hide group members that lets group admins hide their group's member list, protecting them from unwanted personal messages.
Speaking of groups, Telegram also adds Topics for Groups of any size, giving everyone a new option to organize discussions.
The app also has new progress animations on Android, 10 new custom animated emoji packs for Telegram Premium users to use, and more interactive emoji.
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