Telegram elevates user experience with new advanced features

Instant messaging app Telegram has unveiled a series of new features and updates aimed at enhancing user experience, empowering content creators, and making the app more versatile and engaging. These new features include the Mini App Bar for streamlined multitasking, Paid Media for monetizing exclusive content, Story Search for discovering stories via hashtags and location tags, and the Premium Link Widget for enriched storytelling.

More than 500 million Telegram users now interact with mini-apps monthly to purchase products, access services, and play games. Starting today, users can collapse mini-apps into a bar at the bottom of their screen. This feature allows users to respond to messages or open other mini-apps and then return to a mini-app without waiting for it to load again. To minimize an app, users simply swipe down on its header. To reopen, they can tap the app bar at the bottom of the screen and select one of their active apps.

Telegram Stars, launched last month for purchasing digital products in mini apps, can now be used by content creators to accept payments for paid photos or videos on their channels. Subscribers can view these exclusive posts only after paying to unlock them. Creators can use Stars to receive cryptocurrency rewards in Toncoin or to advertise their channels with minimal commission fees.

The new update allows users to search for stories using hashtags. Tapping a hashtag in any chat now displays search results from chats and public channels, and tapping hashtags in story captions shows public stories with matching tags. This feature helps content creators and businesses grow their audience organically by making their profiles and channels more discoverable.

Users can add location tags to their stories, allowing others to find stories from the same place. Tapping a location tag lets users browse public stories from the same location, enhancing discoverability and engagement. Only stories that users are allowed to view appear in these searches, ensuring privacy.

Premium users can enhance their stories with the new Link Widget, creating a stylish link preview on their photos or videos. This widget supports both light and dark backgrounds and allows users to add a custom link name, replacing the URL text at the top of the preview.

Telegram now also offers subsidized ads for both developers and content creators, allowing them to promote their bots or channels at a special rate with a 30% discount. This feature provides a cost-effective way to reach new users and grow their audience.