Telegram Gains Better Reactions, Video Stickers, Interactive Emoji, and More

Telegram has updated its iPhone and iPad app with several new features, including new easy-to-make video stickers, better reactions, interactive emoji, improved navigation between chats, and other additions and improvements.

telegram
Telegram's video stickers have proven a popular feature on the chat platform, and in the latest version of the app, support has been added for stickers converted from regular videos.

This means creating detailed animated stickers no longer requires specialized software such as Adobe Illustrator if users want to make their own. For interested creators, Telegram has a video sticker manual with all the details.

Version 8.5.1 of the app also brings improved message reactions. Users can now press and hold a reaction to send a larger reaction, and reactions are now synchronized, so recipients see the animations in real time. In addition, reactions now have a read status.

There are also five new reactions that can optionally be sent as interactive emoji with synchronized fullscreen effects. They include smiling face with three hearts, mind-blown face, thinking face, swearing face, and hands clapping.

Meanwhile, navigating through chats in Telegram has been improved. When jumping through unread channels or moving between chats, users can now press and hold the "Back" button to return to a specific chat via a popup menu. Opening chats from forwarded messages, links, usernames, profiles, and so on also adds them to the menu.

Elsewhere, Telegram developers have improved call quality, added support for translation to Instant View pages (and bios on iOS), added the option to send silent messages from the sharing menu, and included new animations when tapping icons in the tab bar.

Telegram version 8.5.1 is available now on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.

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Top Rated Comments

User 6502 Avatar
45 months ago

Signal > Telegram.

Now, if only Signal had better stickers...
I much prefer Telegram, but we can agree that both are much better than WhatsApp or iMessage.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
blizzerand Avatar
45 months ago

After reading through this entire thread I still don't understand why I would use this or any other messaging app other than the built-in iMessage app? What am I missing.

Why would I want to keep chasing messaging apps, and trying to get all of my contacts to do the same? Seems like something you do when, how you get the message out, is more important than the message itself. ?
Because iMessage isn't on Android. Outside US, it's usually hard to find someone using iMessage (sometimes even if they use iPhone, people prefer to use Whatsapp because that's where all your friends are at). Privacy conscious people tend to use Signal/Telegram.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ghotinchips Avatar
45 months ago
Signal > Telegram.

Now, if only Signal had better stickers...
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mzeb Avatar
45 months ago
The key difference here is that Signal and iMessage both use end to end encryption by default. There is no other option. You must specifically create a "secure chat" on telegram for e2e. This is due to their legacy 1.0 protocol not being entirely replaceable by their e2e 2.0 protocol. I don't work there so I don't have fine grained detail into why but this generally means that some bits of telegram will always be less private. Not insecure but less private.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tedwill Avatar
45 months ago

privacy wise WhatsApp and iMessage are better than Telegram.
I agree about iMessage, but with WhatsApp being owned by Facebook (Meta), and their primary source of revenue is advertising, I'm not sure I trust WhatsApp.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
swisscanadian Avatar
45 months ago

People still use that?
550 million people do
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)