Telegram Update Brings Auto-Delete Feature, Home Screen Widgets, Expiring Invite Links, and More

Telegram was the most downloaded app globally in January according to a recent report.

By Vineet Washington | Updated: 24 February 2021 17:43 IST

Telegram Update Brings Auto-Delete Feature, Home Screen Widgets, Expiring Invite Links, and More

Telegram’s auto-delete feature will only be available to admins in group chats

Highlights

Telegram gets chat widgets for easier and faster access to latest chats
Telegram groups can now convert to Broadcast Groups for unlimited members
The app has been updated for both iOS and Android

Telegram has a new auto-delete feature for messages, home screen widgets, expiring invite links, and more with the latest update. The auto-delete feature will allow users to set an auto-delete timer for messages they send in any chat (presently this feature is available on Telegram for its secret messages option). The home screen widget allows you to access your chats faster and the expiring invite links system lets you make a created link inactive after a certain time. The features have been rolled out to Android and iOS versions of the Telegram app.

Telegram was the most downloaded app globally in January, according to a recent report. The latest update for the Android and iOS versions of the app brings features like auto-delete messages, home screen widgets, expiring invite links, and unlimited members. The update also improves the chat importing experience and reporting system, as well as adds more animated emojis.

As per its official blog post, the auto-delete messages feature in Telegram can automatically delete messages either after 24 hours or seven days after they have been sent. Once a user selects the auto-delete feature, messages from there on will be automatically deleted after the time period chosen by the user. In case of a group chat, only admins can enable or modify the timer and messages from everyone in the group will be deleted after the set time. To do this on Android, tap on the menu icon on the top right in a chat, select Clear History and then choose the time frame. On iOS, tap and hold a message, tap on Select, then tap on Clear Chat in the top left of the chat and select Enable Auto-Delete and select the time frame.

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Home screen widgets will allow users to see a preview of recent messages or only the names and profile pictures of contacts. On Android, the widgets can be expanded to take up more of your screen and will always be up to date. The home screen widgets for iOS will only get fresh data “occasionally”, which the company says is due to system limitations.

The Telegram update also brings expiring group invite link that can be made inactive after a certain time. Additionally, groups that are close to the 200,000 members limit can now convert into Broadcast Groups that do not have any members limit. However, only group admins can send messages in these groups.

Talking about other improvements in the latest Telegram update, the chat import feature that was added last month has been updated to show imported messages sorted by their original date. This is only valid for Telegram chats that are new or have fewer than 1,000 messages. Also, specific messages can now be reported and users can add comments when reporting. Lastly, the update brings new animated emojis to Telegram.

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