Telegram updates its messaging app with options to automatically delete posts, expiring invite links, and new unlimited groups, which the company has shared in a blog post. Like Signal, Telegram received a burst of new user confusion over WhatsApp’s privacy policies, and now the company is adopting features that were already part of its competitors’ apps, features that provide greater security and privacy.
Automatic message deletion was already possible in Telegram’s encrypted secret chats, but this new update for iOS and Android adds the option to make messages disappear in any form of chat. Auto delete can be turned on in chats and is set to delete 24 hours or 7 days after messages are sent. However, automatic deletion does not delete every message; if a message was sent before the feature was enabled, it will hang. Telegram’s competitors had similar features: WhatsApp introduced a feature in 2020, and Signal has disappeared messages since at least 2016.
Telegram is also making changes to groups that enable the kind of instant, informative audio experiences that have become popular on Clubhouse. New “Broadcast Groups” allow an unlimited number of members, but limit the creation of posts to group admins so they can, well, broadcast. Voice chats, on the other hand, are open to anyone in a broadcast group, and Telegram believes the feature should be “ideal for large communities, where people can follow and follow exclusive interviews, news or just casual conversations.”
To keep these groups exclusive (or grow quickly), Telegram adds expiring invite links that can be set to expire after a set number of uses, a set amount of time, or both. With the new invites, group admins should be able to better moderate who joins and keep private topic a little more private.
Many users left WhatsApp for Telegram out of concern that Facebook would read their messages. Extending privacy features such as auto-delete seems like a good way for Telegram to address these concerns. But even with new privacy options, Telegram still doesn’t universally provide a feature many users expect: end-to-end encryption.
All messages on Telegram are technically encrypted, but secret chats are the only ones that can be viewed exclusively on the participants’ devices. It’s a difference that according to Telegram, features like the new broadcast groups allow, but even with auto-delete it can be a deal breaker for you.
You can check out the full list of new features on Telegram’s blog.