Editing Stories

• You can edit the privacy settings and pretty much any details of your story at any time: captions, text overlays, stickers, and other elements—all without the need of deleting your story and creating a new one.

• To edit a story, open the menu button, and choose “Edit Story.”

• While a story is up, you can change who can view it: open the privacy settings in the top right corner, and choose between the options: Everyone, My Contacts, Close Friends, or Selected Contacts.

• You can view your stories from Settings > My Stories. There you can tap on any story to see who viewed it, change its visibility, or remove it from your profile.

More on this update can be found here.

Detailed View Statistics

• You can see a list of those who have viewed your stories.

• You can open the list of viewers directly in the story or from the archive at Settings > My Stories.

• Filters allow you to see which contacts of yours viewed the story, and let you prioritize recent views or reactions.

• To see if a specific user has viewed your story, simply enter their name in the search bar.

• This list becomes inaccessible 24 hours after the story expires. Premium users have permanent access to it.
Updated 24.08.2023. Some Premium users have permanent access only to list of users who have sent reaction. Viewers lists are not accessible for such users Premium users forever.

• Note that the reaction and view counts always remain accessible.

• Premium users can enable Stealth Mode to anonymously see stories of other users. This will remove them from the viewer list of stories posted 5 minutes before and 25 minutes after enabling Stealth Mode.

More on this update can be found here.

Bot API was updated to version 6.8

What's new:
• Added the field story to the class Message for messages with forwarded stories. Currently, it holds no information.
• Added the field voter_chat to the class PollAnswer, to contain channel chat voters in Polls. For backward compatibility, the field user in such objects will contain the user 136817688 (@Channel_Bot).
• Added the field emoji_status_expiration_date to the class Chat.
• Added the method unpinAllGeneralForumTopicMessages.
• Increased to 512 characters the maximum length of the startapp parameter in direct Web App links.

See the full changelog for details on the official website.

#update #BotAPI

Telegram Data Center Is Unstable

DC2 users are currently experiencing issues in using Telegram. The status hangs on "Updating...".

Symptoms: displaying the inscription "Connecting ..." in the title and others.

#outages

Back To Stable

Telegram was unstable for around 40 minutes, and at some point it was impossible to send and receive messages. However, the issue seems to be fixed now.

#outages

Telegram has been blocked in Somalia.

The Somali government has made the decision to block the TikTok and Telegram applications, as well as the online betting website 1XBET, within the country, stating that they are being used by "terrorists" for propagandistic purposes.

According to the Ministry's information, these listed platforms are being utilized by "terrorists" and "groups promoting immorality" to disseminate violent images and videos, as well as to mislead the public.

This decision was made ahead of the second phase of a military offensive against the radical Islamists known as "Al-Shabaab," who have been conducting a bloody uprising against the central government in Mogadishu for over 15 years.

The Ministry of Communication and Technology, in its statement, indicated that it has instructed internet providers to cut off access to these three platforms by August 24th. Legal actions will be taken against those who fail to comply with this requirement, the nature of which is not specified.

#bans #Somalia

Telegram Desktop updated to version 4.9.2

What's new:
— Remove single recently used emoji or reset the list from context menu.
— Change all emoji skin colors from Emoji & People section.
— Connected Websites section in Settings > Privacy and Security.
— Bug fixes and other minor improvements.

Download: from official website or GitHub.

#update #desktop

Stories from Telegram

An increasing number of users are starting to see stories posted on behalf of Telegram. These stories visually showcase some of the story features from the messenger’s latest update.

Previously, we reported that the Telegram team intends to share information about app updates in a new format (in addition to the long-standing text updates in the messenger’s official account).

It isn’t possible to hide these stories from the main screen using the same method as hiding stories from contacts: the standard hiding method is not available in this case.

#Stories

Does The Ability to Post Stories Without Having Premium Subscription Depend on Your Region?

In the version 10.0.0 of Telegram's mobile applications, posting Stories became available even to accounts without a Telegram Premium subscription. However, many users have discovered that this feature hasn't appeared for them.

The editorial team at @tginfoen believes that the ability to post Stories for users without a premium subscription depends on the country's phone code linked to the Telegram account.

For instance, in Russia, Ukraine, Indonesia, Uzbekistan, India and Iran, publishing Stories without Telegram Premium isn't possible, whereas users from Belarus and Kazakhstan are permitted to do so.

A detailed article about the editorial team's observations and story publication in other countries is available at the following link: tginfo.me/stories-by-countries-en

Update on August 28, 2023: Telegram Stories feature is now available to users with Uzbekistan phone number.

#Stories

Stories is Now Available in Uzbekistan

In a recent article, we addressed the absence of Stories in several countries, Uzbekistan included. Users have reported that it's now possible to post stories without a Premium subscription by using an Uzbek phone number. We're also looking into expansion of this feature to other countries, but availability details are still pending.

#Uzbekistan #Stories

New Features on the Telegram Ads Platform

Over the past few weeks Telegram Ads (the official advertising platform) has undergone several significant changes. Let’s explore the new possibilities now available to advertisers:

• External links with no length restrictions:
This new feature allows advertisers to add special UTM tags to the URLs entered, providing detailed information about each traffic source.

• Fast food advertising now permitted:
The previous ban on promoting fast food products on the platform has been completely lifted.

• Information about reasons for ad rejection:
Telegram now informs advertisers which specific group of requirements their ad doesn’t meet, such as “Destination quality”, “Destination functionality”, “Irrelevant destinations”, or “Manipulation of content.”

• Metrics viewing for CTR, CPM, CPC, CPS of published ads:
Thanks to this new feature, advertisers can assess the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns.

• Ability to use custom emojis in ad text:
Capture the attention of potential clients and subscribers using unconventional emojis.

#AboutAds

Telegram Desktop updated to version 4.9.4

What's new:
— Default private chats / groups / channels notification settings.
— Forwarded / reply-to-a-story icon in chats list message preview.
— Bug fixes and other minor improvements.

Download: from official website or GitHub.

#update #desktop

Indonesian Users Can Now Post Stories Without Premium

Our readers report users with Indonesian phone numbers now can post stories without Telegram Premium.

We keep looking into expansion of this feature into other countries, final availability details are still pending.

We maintain a list of countries in our article.

Subscribe to @tginfo in Indonesian.

#Indonesia #stories

Telegram Is Preparing to Bring Stories to Channels

According to crawled data from @tgcrawl, changes were made in Telegram for Android that indicate that stories are coming for channels.

From the changes we can guess that there will be a boosting system similar to Discord’s. For example, the number of the stories that can be posted might depend on the number of boosts received by the channel form its subscribers.

Apparently, only Telegram Premium users will be able to boost channels.

#stories

Updates to Web Bots, Stories for Channels and Channel Boosts

Telegram's Beta version for Android update hints at several upcoming features, as analyzed by the @tginfo team.

Channel stories and boosts
It seems that Telegram is working on a "boost" system for channels, reminiscent of Discord's. Boosts will allow channel subscribers to vote for their favorite channels. These boosts might unlock special features for administrators, such as the ability to post stories to the channel. The exact features and rewards based on this system are still unknown. There could be different levels with varying limits and functionalities, and the number of stories available for posting might depend on the number of boosts received.

It seems like only Telegram Premium subscribers will be able to boost, and as of now, it looks like Premium users will have only one boost in their subscription available at no extra cost. Telegram aims to introduce this feature to channel administrators in hopes that they will encourage their subscribers to give their boost to their channel. To facilitate quick access to the boost sending menu, a deep link will be provided. Users will be able to change which channel receives their boost only once a day.

Story enhancements
Users will be able to add background audio to stories.
An option to pin a story to a post will be introduced.

Improved login confirmation system
Instead of receiving login notifications via personal messages from the Telegram account, they will now appear above the chat list.

Statistics
Channel statistics will now include data about subscribers with a Telegram Premium subscription.

View photos or videos only once
A new self-destruct option will be added, which prevents media files from being viewed more than once.

Web bot platform update
App strings indicate that in the next update, Telegram will allow users to add shortcuts to launch Web bots from the Android app's side menu.

This feature might be available exclusively to select partner bots. It's highly probable that this shortcut feature was specifically designed for @Wallet, but it might be utilized for other partner bots in the future.

The Web bot platform itself has been renamed to Mini Apps, and using them will require users to accept separate terms of service.

Previously, an ability for Web-bots to store their data on Telegram servers was spotted in the app, with the data being synchronized across the user's devices. @tginfo speculates that this feature could've been developed for the recently announced non-custodial TON wallet. Testing suggests that the data storage feature in Telegram might also be exclusive to select partner bots.

It's important to note that all this information is based on speculations from the Beta version of the app, so the features might undergo some changes by the time of release.

#stories #boosts

Crypto wallet integration in Telegram

In the new version of Telegram, users who have previously used the @wallet bot now have a section with a crypto wallet in the application menu. Telegram promises to provide other users with quick access to the wallet in November of this year.

TON Foundation together with Telegram announced their partnership within the framework of the TOKEN2049 conference - presentation and photos from the conference.

Now @wallet will have direct access to all 800 million users of the messenger (excluding US citizens) by integrating the service into the menu.

In addition, Telegram will provide priority access to its advertising platform to TON projects and partners.

In 5 years, TON plans to reach 30% of all active Telegram users.

Download: Google Play, App Store.

#TON

Pavel Durov Cleared Concerns About New Global Search Behavior

Pavel Durov confirmed the global search changes that were previously noticed by our subscribers:

“Previously, public channels with more subscribers would appear higher in the search results. That system worked fine for a while, but was increasingly getting abused by spammers. That's why we now only count genuine subscribers of channels for ranking.

For example, channels with more Premium subscribers will generally rank higher. However, if a specific Premium subscriber joins too many channels, they won't give those channels as big of a search ranking boost. Of course, the new search also prioritizes results from your country.

The feedback on this change is overwhelmingly positive. Channels with an inflated subscribers count have become less visible, while useful groups and mini-apps are now attracting more users”.

#search

Telegram Redesign Competition for Android

Telegram has announced the start of a new competition to create a fresh design for its Android OS application.

Competition Objective:

Participants are required to create a comprehensive redesign concept for Telegram for Android. The concept should reflect the core essence of the application, its lightweight nature, and enhance the visual aesthetics with updated elements.

As an additional source of information, Material Design 3 recommendations can be utilized. To be eligible for rewards, the competition entry must encompass all the components and areas listed in the minimum requirements.

During the design development, it is necessary to carefully consider various scenarios and cover all related elements and components, such as pinned messages, service messages, shared media, stories, etc.

For the chat list, an option with a white header (and an alternative semi-transparent view) can be provided.

All participant requirements, information on submission formats, and additional comments are provided in the @designers channel.

Prize fund: $30,000
Deadline: 23:59 on October 5th (Dubai time)
Who can participate: Everyone
Results: October 19th, 2023

#contest