Telegram 8.0: Live stream feature rolled out

In its latest version 8.0 update, messaging platform Telegram has introduced live streams with unlimited viewers to groups and channels. The update also has enabled options to remove captions from media and hide sender names when forwarding, easy switch to unread channel without going back to chat list, an improved sticker panel along with new animated emoji.

Unlimited Live Streams

The live stream feature supports unlimited viewers along with allowing them to raise hand and join broadcast. The Group Video Calls feature that was added in earlier updates, is already a powerful tool for live broadcasts and now gets even better with the support for unlimited viewers.

Flexible Forwarding

To improve the message forwarding experience, users can preview and edit how the message will look along with several customization options. Users can hide the sender’s name or hide captions on media messages, deselect messages that they don’t want to send and even change the recipient if they tapped the wrong chat.

Jump to Next Channel

Users now have the flexibility of scrolling through the channels followed without getting back to the chat list. If the chat list has been organized with Folders or Archived Chats, the app will follow the structure set up by users: channels in the current folder, then within each folder, then those left in All Chats and the Archive. Users can now simply open a channel from one folder to read them all without getting distracted by the chats of other folder.

Trending Stickers

The app now shows trending stickers above ‘Recently Used’ in the sticker panel. Users can save a pack for future and the app now has larger previews for sticker suggestions. Users can enter one emoji in the input field to get suggestions and further pull upward on the suggestions panel to see more suggested stickers. The new update also now shows ‘choosing a sticker’ status at the top of the chat to indicate if the respondent is replying or not.

Unread Comment Counters

Many channels have comments enabled for their posts so that subscribers can interact and share their thoughts. Just like with chats, when users open a comment thread that has new messages, a counter will now appear showing the number of unread comments.

New Animated Emoji

The update has introduced some new animated emojis for users to choose the option of being more expressive in the chats.