Telegram Adds Discussion Button, a Group Chat Extension for Restricted Channels

This feature will help the organisations to generate "pro-active conversations" with their participants

By Abhik Sengupta | Updated: 18 March 2020 16:24 IST

Telegram Adds Discussion Button, a Group Chat Extension for Restricted Channels

Telegram now lets users access a separate group chat extension even on chat restricted channels

Highlights

Telegram launches Group Chat extension for Channel
Channel admins can create an official extended group of the channel
The group with the same old updates will allow users to chat

Telegram on Wednesday announced that the company is adding 'Discussion Button' for Channels, letting those with admin-only chat restrictions allow for discussions among regular participants. Participants still won't be able to post content of the official channel, if restricted, but will be able to express views on the official extended group created by the organisation. Often, official Channels created by companies are chat restricted only to the admins, where only they had the right to post the updates. Earlier this year, Telegram had also launched several new features including Theme Editor 3.0 and Send When Online with its Telegram 5.13 version.

According to the statement shared by Telegram, the new Discussion Button feature for the Channels will help the organisations to generate "pro-active conversations" with their participants. To achieve this, Telegram is offering admins the right to create an extended group chat of the respective Channel, with the presence of all their previous updates - but enabling chat options for everyone. Thus, the company is also calling the move a 'group chat extension for channels'

"All the messages automatically get re-posted in this chat group once you send a message to the main channel. The concerned authorities can also pickup feedback and queries coming from their users posting on the group chat, and can act accordingly," Telegram also highlighted in the presser.

To enable the Discussion Button feature, the Admin would need to click on the Top right corner button of the channel. The admin needs to further ensure these steps:

Click on Manage Channel > Select Discussion followed by a button named as Add a Group > Tap on Create a Group > Insert Name for the group chat forum.

Earlier this year, Telegram brought major updates to its messaging app. The Theme Editor 3.0 feature enabled users to tweak the appearance of Telegram chats with new gradients. It also brought ‘Send When Online' feature that allows users to deliver messages to a recipient when they come online.

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