Telegram gets new features: Download Manager, updated Attachment Menu, Broadcast Tools and more
Moreover, the Telegram chat links are now also available with a user’s phone number.
Telegram Messenger: Instant messaging platform Telegram has recently announced several new tools for the audience, to help them control their downloads, re-arrange media albums, live-stream using other apps in the channels or share documents in a quicker manner, among others. The biggest tool among these is a browser-like downloads manager that lets a user check which media files are being downloaded by them. In this downloads manager, the user can see media downloads from all the chats, which makes it easier for them to track the files all in one place.
This Download Manager also lets them pause or resume individual or all of their downloads and also prioritise downloading for a media that might be urgent. Telegram, which provides users with unlimited cloud storage, allows transferring of any types of files of up to 2GB file size. Now, when a user starts a download, a new icon (a circle with a downloading arrow) will appear on the search bar in the Telegram. While this icon will constantly show the status of downloads, clicking on it will direct users to the Download Manager.
The WhatsApp competitor is also getting a new Attachment Menu that will let users see how the photo preview gallery will look like in the chat. Once a user has selected multiple images they wish to send to a chat, they would be able to go on the ‘Selected’ tab at the top of the screen to see which image will be placed where in the preview. Here, they will be able to re-arrange their images the way they want and give a common caption to the newly curated album that they have sent. In fact, for the iOS devices, the attachment menu has now been redesigned completely, the company said, so that it now is similar to the Android version, so that it has a new navigation bar allowing quicker access to gallery, files, location and contacts, and to integrate the in-app camera in the gallery tab itself.
Android version of the messenger has also been updated. Now, the headers in the app (be it the main headers or chat headers) are translucent. While no text or visual will be properly visible under these headers, the colours of the chat icons or of media shared in a chat will become visible behind the headers in night mode as a user scrolls through the app. This very subtle feature is already present in the iOS version of the app.
Telegram has also added support for live video broadcasts via tools like OBS Studio and XSplit Broadcaster. These tools allow multi-screen layouts as well as overlays, which means users of Telegram’s livestreaming feature – mostly bloggers and journalists – will now be able to easily “turn any Telegram channel into a professional TV Station”, the company said.
Moreover, the Telegram chat links are now also available with a user’s phone number, and with this, anyone having this link would directly be able to open the chat with the user. Of course, this feature will work if the user has enabled public access to their number on Telegram.