Telegram has launched an important update for your iOS and Android apps that includes a variety of new and improved features. Since last year, Telegram Premium users have been able to get transcripts of voice and video messages and now the platform is opening that feature to everyone, although on a more limited basis. Free users will be able to convert two messages per week to text. Simply press the →A icon on a voice message and you'll get a text version of the note. Telegram notes that it is rolling out this feature gradually, so you may not have access to it right away.
Elsewhere, Telegram is looking to improve channel discovery. Every time you join a channel, you'll see a selection of similar public channels. Telegram bases these recommendations on similarities in subscriber bases. You can see these recommendations at any time by accessing a channel's profile.
Now you can include a video comment or reaction with a story. You will have the ability to resize this video message and move it around the screen. You can add a video message, a feature that takes a page out of the TikTok playbook, by long-pressing the camera icon in the story editor to capture a selfie clip. You can adjust the volume by holding a finger on the video track at the bottom of the screen.
Reposting someone else's story is now also very easy. Simply tap the share button on a story and then you'll have the option to repost it. Only stories with public visibility can be republished. You can also add a video comment to republished stories.
Elsewhere, Premium users can set their profiles with unique color schemes, everyone can apply custom wallpapers to each individual chat (Premium users can set the same wallpaper for both participants), and channel admins can customize the emoji that appear as reactions. Additionally, any Telegram app can now detect an encoding language in messages and highlight syntax with proper formatting.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/telegram-now-offers-all-users-limited-transcriptions-of-voice-messages-185114448.html?src=rss
