- The Telegram team has announced several video-focused additions to the app.
- These include 1,000 people on a video call, upgraded Video Messages, and the ability to adjust video playback speed.
Telegram is one of the best alternatives to WhatsApp, owing to a large user-base and a host of features that are missing from the Facebook-owned IM app. Now, the Telegram team has revealed the latest stable update, bringing several notable features to the table.
The headline feature this time is that Telegram is raising the group video call limit from 30 participants to 1,000 people. There is a major caveat though, as the ability to display your video feed is still limited to 30 people, meaning the 970 additional people can’t actually display their video. Nevertheless, Telegram is positioning this option as being ideal for lectures, event streams, and other similar formats.
We also get upgrades to the Video Messages feature, which lets you record a short video snippet that doesn’t get saved to your phone gallery. These videos are now at a higher resolution, can be expanded, and have playback controls (e.g. rewind, pause, fast-forward).
These aren’t the only video-related tweaks, as the Telegram update also brings screen-sharing with device sound in one-on-one video calls and the ability to adjust video playback speed.
Other noteworthy additions in this update include the ability to auto-delete messages sent in a chat after a month (joining one day and one week as options), your pen brush automatically decreasing in width as your zoom in on a picture, new message-sending animations, and new animated emoji.