Reportedly, Telegram- which now has 700 million customers- is rolling out its Telegram Premium service, a new paid subscription that will offer exclusive additional features to subscribers. According to TechCrunch, the service will cost $4.99 per month. It is not clear what the price will be for users in India and other countries. These exclusive features include 4GB file upload, faster download speeds, exclusive stickers and reactions and improved chat management.
Send files of up to 4GB size with Telegram Premium
All Telegram users can already upload files of up to 2GB in size and get unlimited storage of these files on the Telegram Cloud for free. But with Telegram Premium subscribers will have access to an increased file size limit of 4GB. All Telegram users will be able to download these bigger files, irrespective of whether they are Telegram Premium subscribers or not.
Faster downloads for Telegram Premium subscribers
Telegram Premium subscribers will have access to the fastest possible download speeds from Telegram servers. “You can access everything in your unlimited cloud storage as fast as your network can keep up,” says a company blog post that announces the new service.
Almost all limits increased on Telegram Premium
Almost all limits placed on standard accounts will be increased for Premium users. For example, Telegram Premium subscribers can follow up to 1,000 channels, create up to 20 chat folders with up to 200 chats each, add a fourth account to any Telegram app, pin 10 chats in the main list and save up to 10 favourite stickers.
Telegram Premium users can also write a longer bio and include a link in it. Also, Premium will allow users to add more characters to media captions. They can also reserve up to 20 public t.me links, which can help make groups and channels stand out with a short and concise link.
Voice-to-text feature
Telegram Premium users will be able to convert voice notes to text in case they would prefer to read instead of listening to a voice note. These transcriptions can be rated by the user so that they can be improved over time.
New stickers and reactions
Premium users can also send stickers with full-screen animations in any chat and they will be visible to all users. This collection of premium stickers will be updated monthly. Premium users will also unlock new ways to react to messages with over 10 new emoji-like features.
New chat management features for premium users
Premium users are also given new tools to organise their chat list, like changing the default chat folder so that the app always opens to a custom folder, or maybe, opens all unread messages instead of all chats.
Animated profile videos, premium icons and premium badge
Premium users will be able to use animated profile videos that will be visible to everyone who uses the app. All Premium users will also get a premium badge that will appear next to their name in chat lists, chat headers and member lists in groups. On top of that, Premium users will also have the option to choose different premium app icons for the Telegram app.
Ad-free experience
In some countries, Telegram shows sponsored messages on large and public one-to-many channels. These advertisements will no longer appear for Telegram Premium subscribers.