Today marks seven years (since 2013), since Telegram began as a small app focused on secure messaging and grew into a platform with over 400M users.
To celebrate this milestone, Telegram has today added fast and secure video calls.
Telegram, which boasts of never advertising and holding strong principles and quality features says the need for face-to-face communication during the Coronavirus Pandemic has greatly inspired the move.
The alpha version of video calls is now available on Android, and will later be coming to iOS as soon as possible.
You can start a video call from your contact’s profile page, and switch video on or off at any time during voice calls. Like all other video content on Telegram, video calls support picture-in-picture mode, allowing you to scroll through chats and multitask while maintaining eye contact.
All video calls are protected with end-to-end encryption. To confirm your connection, compare the four emoji shown on-screen for you and your chat partner – if they match, your call is 100% secured by time-tested encryption also used in Telegram’s Secret Chats and Voice Calls.
Telegram says they will continue improving and adding new features in future versions.
Why not on iOS?
Telegram says they launched this feature on Android only due to Apple has failing to review the update in time, even though it was submitted to the App Store several days before it was sent to Google Play.
“If you’re on iOS and would like to try Telegram Video Calls, you’ll have to wait until Apple lets you – or switch to a platform that has more respect for its users and developers, like Android. 😉”
Telegram has also added another batch of new animated emoji.
