Profile picture builder on Telegram for macOS

Version 8.8 of Telegram for macOS now can build avatars for users, chats, and channels. The feature is similar to the one found in iMessage. Other platforms don't have avatar builder yet. App Store update is unavailable yet too, so you will have to download the app directly from the website.

The builder lets you
• Choose an animated emoji, animated stickers from Telegram, or a monogram.
• Change its size and position.
• Choose one of gradient and pattern presets.

From the parameters you set, a video-avatar is generated. Telegram Premium users always have their video-avatars played in loop automatically, which is a nice addition to the new feature.

Would you like to see the profile picture builder on other platforms, or do you consider the feature to be unnecessary?

#macOS

Official bot for tracking government requests

Telegram has launched @transparency — a bot that can be used to obtain information about the user data shared with governments around the world, data such as the user's IP address or phone number (as mentioned in clause 8.3 of the Privacy Policy).

Users can only see transparency records of the country to which their phone number belongs. That said, Telegram will not be disclosing users' data with countries or regions with a low democracy index.

The public address @transparency was previously used by another official channel which was for broadcasting data disclosure information. Although even after the 4th year of its existence, nothing was published there, which might mean that the requests of the authorities were not satisfied.

Submissions for the Android development contest were published

The task of the contest was implementing reactions for Telegram X according to provided mockups (including animations, layouts and all customization options).

You can test and view the submissions by downloading the APK files in the special channel: @tgx_prs.

Since the apps were developed by third-party developers, it's not recommended to use your main account.

Results of the contest will be announced on July 12.

#contests

Journalists traced Telegram's payment partners

Telegram Info editors have previously mentioned that the @donate and @PremiumBot bots are not developed directly by Telegram, but were created by a company called Smart Glocal in partnership with the messenger team.

Mediazona's journalists conducted an investigation and found out that money from users from Russia passes through a network of payment providers and companies linked to Kazan-based entrepreneur Dmitry Eremeev.

The publication notes that Eremeev is the owner of Bank 131 and an old partner of the Durov brothers, who helped them in the early days of VKontakte. It also mentions that the entrepreneur has invested in the cryptocurrency Toncoin. Despite all the arguments by Mediazone, Eremeev denies any affiliation with the bots mentioned.

The investigation also points out controversial aspects of Smart Glocal's activities. For example, a number of journalists complained that they were denied to be serviced by the @donate bot, citing a "rule prohibiting critical statements on political topics" in the channels."

Telegram Info has translated the article to English.
https://tginfo.me/telegram-payment-partners/

Results of the second round of the GIF contest were published

Judges and paid contributors delivered over 500,000 required verdicts in order to select 285 winning works, containing thousands of GIF-files.

In order to see high-quality, smooth and impressive GIF files, created by the winners of the contest, you need to open the search section of GIFs in your Telegram app. You can paste any emoji into the search field or enter your desired query.

In general, the rating shows the quality of the image, the overall usability of the content present, and its relevance to the selected emoji.

The judges evaluated creativity, uniqueness, and stylistic consistency. Bonus points were awarded to contestants who achieved excellent quality and maintained a small size.

GIF animations created by the awardees and winners of the competition are already waiting for you in the corresponding panel.

More about the results of the competition here.

#contests

Telegram WebZ was updated to version 1.49.0

What's new
— Telegram Premium support.
— Ability to use built-in trackpad gestures for media browsing: Swipe left or right to navigate through media, or up/down to exit.
— Improved polls with support for unvoting and closing, as well as the confetti effect.
— Improved payment validation form.
— Use the hotkey ⌘+ to access Application Settings on macOS.
— Appearance of a useful information screen when JavaScript support is disabled.
— Various layout and performance improvements.

Bug fixes
— The call bar will disappear rightly after answering a call from another device.
— Fixes unexpected deletion of messages when using search in the forwarding menu.
— Fixes unnecessary zoom when loading small images.
— Archived chats will no longer appear in the "Forward to" list.
— Fixes loading loop when disabling reactions in group management.
— Various fixes in the text formatting menu.

web.telegram.org/z

#webz #update

Delete account right from the app

Version 8.3.3 of Telegram for iOS can now delete your account immediately at your request. The new option has appeared in Privacy settings. A sudden update is related to new App Store's guidelines that require the published apps to have an option for users to delete their account without leaving the app.

If you choose to delete your account immediately, Telegram will show you some options you might want to do instead of terminating your account, like changing privacy settings or clearing cache. The deletion button is hidden at the very end of the lengthy list of possible actions.

It's important to know that you can't restore your data nor your account upon its deletion.

Before this change you could delete your account only on the official website, on the deactivation page.

#iOS #update

The results of the Telegram X Android Contest were announced

The June contest's task was to implement reactions to messages in Telegram X that were identical to the attached demos, including all animations, layouts and other visual effects.

Six participants shared $25,000 as a prize. Nine of the eleven participants had already taken part in Telegram's developer contests in past.

The contestants faced the challenge of implementing reactions to messages from scratch while not reusing the existing code base of other Telegram apps.

More information about the winners, their awards, and their work can be viewed on the official Telegram Contests channel.

#contest

Custom emoji in the next update

New content was uploaded to Telegram's servers, so now we know more about the upcoming update.

The feature will let people use stickers as emoji within the text of messages. There will be packs animated by the Telegram team and custom sets from regular users — including static and video emoji.

It is likely that only Premium users will be able to use custom emoji sets: this may be the first addition to the list of perks since the introduction of the subscription.

#premium

Gift Telegram Premium

In Beta version of Telegram for macOS, you can gift Premium subscription to another user.

Three gift plans are now available:

• 3 months (with 5% discount) — $14.39
• 6 months (with 10% discount) — $26.99
• 1 year (with 15% discount) — $49.99

#macOS

Ads with animated emoji

Telegram is preparing custom emoji support for sponsored messages. This means advertisers will now be able to insert tiny animations, video- and photo-emoji.

Currently sponsored messages are text-only. Emojis will be played automatically in loop, without sound.

Automatic charges for Telegram Premium subscription

Users have noticed @PremiumBot renews the subscription a day before the scheduled date.

Automatic Renewal FAQ

• How to disable automatic renewal?
Send the /stop command after every payment. Telegram Premium will continue to work but won't renew automatically upon expiration.

• Why did the renewal happen before my subscription expired?
It's a common practice for subscriptions to renew a day (or even sooner) before the expiration. You can see this happening in the App Store and Google Play too. Although the @PremiumBot tells you the "next payment date", it seems like the developers didn't consider the fact that the bot can renew subscriptions earlier. The date the bot tells you is actually the expiration date for your subscription in case you cancel it.

• Why the date shifted back in the next month?
It looks like @PremiumBot considers a month to be a 30-day period. There's still a probability for this to be an error, but the messenger team didn't comment on this regard.

• Why did the price in @PremiumBot get lower?
In first few days after the sells started, Telegram was still adjusting the prices in some regions, like Russia, so in some markets price got lower. You don't need to cancel the subscription and resubscribe to get the new price.

• Will there be compensation if I paid more in the first month due to the price adjustments?
No, compensation for price fluctuations in June is not planned.

• Why is the price for Telegram Premium higher in App Store and Google Play?
Because of App Store and Google Play fees, and also local taxes in some markets.

The subscription is cheaper to get with the @PremiumBot. Because of digital app stores rules, the bot only works on webz.telegram.org and Telegram apps downloaded from telegram.org. The bot won't start in apps installed from app stores or third parties.

• I didn't set the "Save Information for future use" checkbox while entering my payment data, but I was still automatically charged!
This checkbox is responsible for one-time payments in bots. Telegram Premium is a subscription.

Subscriptions don't store your payment data. Instead, they "tokenize" your card. This means the store asks for a special key from your bank, which allows the merchant to make regular payments without storing your card info. These keys usually continue to work even if you re-issue the card because of its expiry, or if you do it manually. Some banks allow revoking such keys from their online banking apps.

#premium #faq

Animated Emoji Sets

In Beta version of Telegram for Android, you can see sets of animated emojis.

The standard emoji categories are now collapsed into a carousel, and the rest of the panel space will be used in the future to scroll through custom emoji sets.

The update will allow you to use stickers as emojis inside text messages. There will be both animated sets by the Telegram team, and custom sets from ordinary users — static and video emojis.

It is likely that only Premium users will be able to use custom emoji sets.

#Android

5000 subscribers of Telegram Info English and search for volunteers

Our international community is growing every day. Today, our English channel @tginfoen already has 5,000 subscribers, and the @tginfochaten chat almost 1,000 members.

We want to get to know our readers better, so we are launching a survey for your place of residence. If your country is not in the poll, write it in the comments to this post.

In addition to @tginfoen we have channels in over 20 @tginfoworld languages ​​and our international team needs help with translations. If you are ready to help us: write to @infowritebot.

Now we know our readers better:

This is how our readers are distributed by continent:
Asia - 41%
Europe - 39%
America - 16%
Africa - 4%

We already have channels in the countries where many of our readers live. Subscribe and read our news in your language:
— Italy @tginfoita - 19%
— China @tginfocn - 7%
— Brazil @tginfobr - 5%
— Germany @tginfoger - 4%
— Russia @tginfo - 3%
— Spain @tginfoesp - 2%

Of course, not all countries were included in the survey, so we asked you to write your country in the comments. Most users have written from India, but for this country we already have 5 channels:
— Hindi @tginfohi
— Malayalam @tginfoml
— Bengali @tginfobn
— Tamil @tginfota
— Sinhalese @tginfosi

Also many readers have written from Iran. Follow this channel @tginfoper.

You can find all our channels in @tginfoworld. If you are ready to help us, write to @infowritebot.