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Telegram is updating its messaging app with automatic message deletion options, expiring invite links and unlimited new groups, the company shared in a blog post. Much like Signal, Telegram has received a flurry of new users amid the confusion surrounding WhatsApp’s privacy policy and now the company is adopting features that were already part of its competitors’ apps, features that provide more security and privacy.
Automatic message deletion was already possible in Telegram’s encrypted secret conversations, but this new update for iOS and Android adds the ability to make messages disappear in any type of chat. Automatic deletion can be turned on in chats and set to be deleted 24 hours or seven days after messages are sent. However, automatic deletion will not delete all messages; if a message was sent before the feature was activated, it will remain. Telegram’s competitors had similar features: WhatsApp introduced a feature in 2020 and Signal has messages that have been disappearing since at least 2016.
Telegram is also making changes to groups that could enable the kind of immediate, informative audio experiences that have become popular on Clubhouse. The new “broadcast groups” allow an unlimited number of members, but limit the creation of messages to group admins so they can, well, broadcast. Voice chats, meanwhile, are open to anyone in a broadcast group, and Telegram believes the feature should be “ideal for large communities, where people can follow and take exclusive interviews, news or just chats.” informal ”.
To help keep these groups exclusive (or grow them quickly), Telegram is adding expiring invite links that can be set to expire after a certain number of uses, a certain amount of time, or both. With the new invites, group admins should be able to moderate participants better and keep the topic private a little more private.
Many users have left WhatsApp for Telegram for fear that Facebook will read their messages. Expanding privacy features like automatic deletion appears to be a good way for Telegram to address these concerns. But even with new privacy options, Telegram still doesn’t universally offer a feature many users expect: end-to-end encryption.
All messages on Telegram are technically encrypted, but secret chats are the only ones that can be viewed exclusively on the devices of participating people. It’s a difference that Telegram says allows features like new group broadcast, but even with automatic deletion, it could be a deal breaker for you.
You can see the full list of new features on Telegram’s blog.
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