One of the most popular, ever-growing messaging apps for cryptocurrency enthusiasts, Telegram, has announced the launch of a paid premium service tier that will provide users access to new features and upgrade some of the already available ones. The company, which just passed the milestone of 700 million monthly active users, is moving to monetize a significant percentage of its user base.
According to CEO Pavel Durov, the premium tier responds to the demands of a particular group of customers who want to extend their bandwidth and storage from within the app. He stated:
“After some consideration, we concluded that adding a fee to those raised restrictions was the only practical way to satisfy our most demanding fans while keeping our current services free.”
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The ability to follow 1,000 channels, up from the free tier’s limit of 500, and the creation of 20 chat folders with 200 chats each are two new features available to premium subscribers. As of this writing, the cost of this new service tier has not been made public; however, reports have estimated that it will cost around $6 monthly.
The company stated that it thinks people, not advertising, should be the main drivers of social media development. This way, it continued, “our users will always come first.”It also made a note of the fact that Premium subscriptions aid Telegram in supporting both the accessible version of the app for everyone as well as the additional costs of premium services.
The statement read, “Telegram will stay free, autonomous, and keep its users-first values, redefining how a software firm should operate. The contributions of premium members will help enhance and expand the service for decades.”
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Telegram said the update is being sent out gradually and that those who have not yet received an update would do so shortly. The update includes new features that enable faster downloads, 4GB uploads, voice-to-text, and many other things. “While we are going to release more exciting features for Premium users, we will maintain developing free features open to everyone, and do so faster than any other massively successful app,” it said.
Users can access increased restrictions, 4 GB file uploads, faster downloads, exclusive stickers and reactions, enhanced conversation management, and more by subscribing to Telegram Premium. All current features, on which consumers have relied for almost a decade, are still available for free. Additionally, non-paid users will be able to take advantage of some Premium features, such as the ability to view stickers sent by premium users, download extra-large documents, and tap to increase counters on premium reactions that have already been added to a message.