t9gram — all about Telegram

2022-01-26 18:10:15 Telegram CEO about crypto

The ban on cryptocurrencies proposed by the Central Bank of Russia will lead to an outflow of IT specialists from the country and destroy a number of sectors of the high-tech economy.

No developed country bans cryptocurrencies. Reason: such a ban will inevitably slow down the development of blockchain technologies in general. These technologies improve the efficiency and safety of many human activities, from finance to the arts.

Solutions based on distributed ledgers, using cryptocurrencies as units of calculation, are replacing the obsolete centralized financial systems of the second half of the 20th century.

Russia's neighbors, from Ukraine to Uzbekistan, following developed countries, adopt progressive laws in the field of blockchain. These states do not want to be left on the sidelines of technological and economic progress.

Russia today is one of the leaders in terms of the number of highly qualified specialists in the blockchain industry. Thoughtful regulation will allow the country to balance the distribution of forces in the international financial system and become one of the major players in the new economy.

The desire to regulate the circulation of cryptocurrencies is natural on the part of any financial authority. However, while recommending a total ban on cryptocurrencies, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation proposes to throw out the baby with water. Such a ban is unlikely to stop unscrupulous players, but it will put an end to legal Russian projects in this area. Open / Comment

2022-01-21 20:25:08 Another country may block Telegram

The next country after Germany, which is considering measures to force the messenger to cooperate, was Brazil. The Valor Economico newspaper cites sources in the country's Higher Electoral Court (TSE) as fearing that Telegram could be used to mass-spread false news and disinformation ahead of elections.

In this regard, the head of TSE sent several letters to Pavel Durov, but did not receive a response to any of them.

In these letters, the TSE proposed to hold a meeting with the Telegram administration and discuss possible measures aimed at ensuring the security of the upcoming elections.

Similar agreements already exist with the online platforms Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp. After TSE returns from vacation in February 2022, the head of the body plans to discuss the situation around Telegram with colleagues in order to determine "possible measures". Open / Comment

2022-01-18 20:43:26 “Just turning off Telegram won’t work” – Germany plans to tighten control over the work of the messenger

Welt published a rather radical article about Telegram. The messenger is represented by a Russian company headquartered somewhere in Dubai. A messenger in which terrorists communicate and calls for murder and violence are openly heard.

On the one hand, adequate moderation of content on the Internet is really necessary. On the other hand, who will determine where that line is. And how not to violate the human right to privacy and freedom of speech.

Due to Pavel Durov's refusal to cooperate with the authorities, more and more governments are ready to tighten rules, fines and bans. Earlier in Germany, they did not rule out the possibility of blocking the messenger.

But German government agencies are trying to establish contact with Telegram representatives and achieve cooperation.

Original article in German Open / Comment

2022-01-12 13:33:46 Animated reactions in Telegram

At the end of 2021, the Telegram update was released and we did not have time to discuss it. It's time to start.

The first among the updates was the reaction. Admit it, have you already sent emoticons by mistake?

Some of the animated emojis can be used as reactions - to quickly show your opinion or attitude without sending text messages.

To send a quick response , double-tap the message. To select other reactions - for example, - tap the message once (for iOS: pinch it with your finger).

You can change emoji for quick reactions in Settings. Android: Chat Settings> Fast Response. iOS: Stickers & Emoji> Fast Response.

In private chats, reactions are always on. In groups and channels, administrators can choose whether to allow reactions and which emojis will be available in the chat. For example, you can include only for likes or collect votes for and against .

In addition, group and channel administrators can enable reactions in the chat profile: Edit> Reactions. To get feedback from readers, comments in channels and Telegram polls with flexible settings can also come in handy. Open / Comment

2021-12-31 20:30:39 2021 was a phenomenal year for Telegram. It became the most downloaded app in the world in January, managed to welcome 70 million new users in just one day in October, and was declared the fastest growing app of the year in December.

We know we owe this growth to you – our users – so we carefully listened to your feedback and kept making Telegram better for you throughout the year. Yesterday we released our 12th major update this year, packed with the features you requested – like reactions and message translation

With each update we try to not simply add a missing feature, but instead expand its boundaries and redefine how it looks, feels and works. We hope that this approach can improve the quality of human communication and bring more efficiency, happiness and joy to the world

The spoiler animations we just rolled out are pure magic, while the custom animated QR codes in this update make QRs sexy again. The newly added message reactions are already spectacular, but it's just the start: we are now busy finding ways to make them even more stunning

I'm grateful for your love of Telegram and excited by what we can do for you in 2022. Thank you – and have a glorious New Year! Open / Comment

2021-12-29 20:17:46 Results of Telegram 2021

2021 was rich in messenger updates.

At the beginning of the year, the export of chats from other messengers appeared. This allowed us to attract more new users.

In the spring, we improved voice chats, creating a tool for live broadcasts and podcasts.

There were a lot of updates from the designers - animated backgrounds, revamped visual menus, color themes, and the ability to add more personalization.

In the summer, we released one of the most anticipated updates. Group video calls, the logical continuation of which are video broadcasts and their recording.

We have significantly improved the search in the messenger and individual chats.

What was the most valuable update to you this year? Open / Comment

2021-12-28 15:32:55 A recent report has proven that Telegram sticks to its promise of keeping its user data private, while apps like WhatsApp give real-time user data to third parties, and despite their numerous claims about "E2E encryption", can also disclose message contents.

The report has confirmed that Telegram is one of the few messaging apps that doesn't breach their users’ trust.

I am not surprised. Most other apps couldn't guarantee privacy to their users even if they wanted to. Because their engineers reside in the US, they have to secretly implement backdoors in their apps when the US government orders them to. If an engineer speaks publicly about it, then can go to jail for breaching a gag order.

In most cases the agencies don't even need a court order to extract private information from messaging apps such as WhatsApp, and in other cases, court documents are shrouded in secrecy. Some supposedly secure apps have been funded by government agencies from their inception (e.g Anom, Signal).

For many years the National Security Agency (NSA) has been making sure that international encryption standards are in line with what the NSA can decipher, and all other approaches to encryption are labeled as "non-standard" or "home-brew". Through their proxies in the encryption industry (like this one), the NSA imposed flawed standards onto the encryption used by the rest of the world, cautioning everyone else from "rolling out their own encryption".

No wonder US-based apps such as WhatsApp are plagued with backdoors – intentionally planted security loopholes that governments (and anybody else) can use to hack smartphones and extract private data from people.

I hear our US-based competitors are frustrated that they can't match Telegram's growth, despite heavily investing in marketing (something Telegram has never had to invest in). But in order to match our growth, they have to first make sure their actions match their marketing claims. Until then, data breaches and security issues in their apps will, unfortunately, remain unavoidable. Open / Comment

2021-12-23 13:10:44 When Telegram said goodbye to TON last year, I expressed the hope that future generations of developers would one day carry on with our vision of a mass-market blockchain platform.

So I was inspired to see the champions of Telegram's coding contests continue developing the open TON project, which they rebranded to Toncoin.

I'm proud that the technology we created is alive and evolving. When it comes to scalability and speed, TON is still years ahead of everything else in the blockchain realm. It would have been a shame to see this project not benefitting humanity.

Unlike the original TON, Toncoin is independent from Telegram. But I wish its team the same success. Coupled with the right go-to-market strategy, they have all they need to build something epic Open / Comment

2021-12-20 17:49:19 Spoilers will appear on Telegram

Soon they may add the ability to hide part of the text. For example, if this text contains the denouement of the plot of a new film. So that the reader can open the insert only if desired. After all, not everyone wants to watch a new film after they know the ending in advance.

When sending a message, you can select the text and select the "Spoiler" option in the menu that appears. After that, instead of text, animation will appear in the correspondence - letters crumbling into pixels. If you want, you can see the content, for this you just need to click on the text. Open / Comment

2021-12-13 09:10:01 Anonymous comments on Telegram

Public groups and comments in channels allow you to discuss any topic, communicate with representatives of various movements and opinions.

To avoid unwanted attention to your personal account, you can now send messages on behalf of one of your channels.

To select a channel on behalf of which messages will be sent, click on the image to the left of the input field. All subsequent messages sent in this chat will be signed with the name and image of the selected channel instead of your name and photo.

When sending messages on behalf of a channel, you will also see the name of this channel above your message blocks.

P.S. It is quite possible to create a channel for communication, it is not necessary to have a popular channel. Open / Comment