Durov says Telegram has taken its first step toward becoming a video platform

Starting today, October 31, Telegram has taken the first step towards becoming a video platform. In particular, from now on, the messenger's apps will automatically optimize videos for streaming.

This was announced by Telegram founder and owner Pavel Durov. He emphasized that this will reduce the waiting time for downloading video files.

"Users had to wait and download gigabytes just to watch a short clip. With today’s update, however, Telegram servers will compress popular videos into multiple quality options and optimize them for streaming," Durov said.

He added that now, when watching a video, Telegram will automatically select the most suitable quality depending on the user's connection speed. However, users will also be able to choose this quality themselves.

"Our October update includes more features that redefine messaging — but I’ll let you fully focus on (spooky) videos this Halloween 🎃," Durov promised and added a relevant emoji.

Other updates

As noted by the messenger's programmers, now, when watching a video, "Telegram will now automatically select a quality level based on your connection to save your data and load videos faster." You can also choose the desired quality in three options - low, medium, or high - manually.

The transition to Picture-in-Picture mode on phones has also been simplified. To watch videos and chats simultaneously, just drag the open video up.

Playback speed control, which has been available on Telegram for a long time, has also improved. Now you don't need to open the settings to do this. Tap and hold your finger on the right side of the screen to speed up video playback, and slide your finger to the right to speed it up even more. Release the screen to return to the normal speed.

Adding media to already sent messages: if you forgot to attach a photo, video, or other file before sending it, you can now add it while editing the message. That means you don't have to delete the message and re-do it. You can also replace the media in the message with any other media while editing.

Notifications when your messages are read have become more detailed. They show when a message was opened by each participant in the chat. Group and channel owners can also use the new #hashtag@username format. When you click on such a hashtag, only posts and stories from the same chat are displayed.

If you enter the hashtag while typing a message in a public chat, a special menu will appear that allows you to add the chat name to the hashtag @ in one touch.

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