And a bajillion other new features, of course
Telegram always seems to be able to jam-pack loads of goodies into its point updates (updates that come out mere weeks apart) and v8.3 of its messaging app is no exception. From a clever new factor of authentication to several ways of managing your privacy across chats and devices, here’s what’s going on.
Bolstering disappearing message settings is the ability to delete whole days of messages a user has sent in a one-on-one conversation. They can tap any date bar that appears in the thread to open up the calendar and select the days they’d like to wipe.
Of course, you can’t delete something you’ve shared off of other people’s devices. If you share exclusive messages and content in a private group or channel, you can now protect it by heading to the group settings and flipping on the “Restrict saving content” toggle. Messages and pictures from the group can no longer be shared or forwarded and screenshots are restricted. That won’t stop people from doing stuff like using a root exploit or taking a picture of the screen with another camera, but the more hurdles, the better.
Maybe you’re trying to join a group or channel — a whole bunch of them? Group admins might reach out to you in response to your request, but there weren’t identified as such until now. You’ll soon be able to see which group you’re being contacted about and when you made the request to join as part of an admin’s reaching out. Bot admins will be able to administrate privileged access to the group with the help of quizzes or prompting a donation.
Telegram has also opened up an easier way to post in groups anonymously by allowing users to comment as a channel. Users can tap on their avatar before they make a comment and select a channel name instead. So long as you haven’t personally associated yourself with the channel, doing that will effectively anonymize your post.
Of course, managing to login is the essential challenge and if someone have two-factor authentication on, they’ll be able to select a new way to verify: not just receiving a code by SMS or voice call, but by identifying the last several digits of the phone number sending the call.
Furthermore, when it comes to managing devices, Telegram is introducing a new desktop sign-in method by using a phone to scan a QR code in the web browser or app. Users can also set Telegram to end old sessions after a certain period of time.
Finally, just for Android, the app is expanding its individual chat theming options introduced in v8.0.1 with a global setting.
You can check Telegram’s blog post for the full changelog, including some edits just for iOS — although it should be pointed out that the only real addition, media caption text formatting, came to Android first. And, of course, Telegram 8.3 is available to be sideloaded right now from APK Mirror.
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