Telegram is amongst the top most downloaded apps in the year 2022 with over 700 million active users. With its continuous growth, Telegram launched a premium service for users where they get to gain access to more features such as 4 GB file uploads, faster downloads, exclusive stickers and reactions, improved chat management – and a whole lot more.
All existing features users have known for the past decade are still free to access, however, if you feel you want to experience more with the premium features, you can go ahead and subscribe for the membership, if you don’t know how to go about that, we’ll walk through the guide in this article. But before that, let’s go through most, if not all premium features on Telegram.
Telegram premium features
- 4 GB Uploads: Any user can upload large files and media, each up to 2 GB in size, and enjoy unlimited storage in the Telegram Cloud for free. With Telegram Premium, subscribers will now be able to send 4 GB files – enough space for 4 hours of 1080p video, or 18 days of high-quality audio.
- Faster Downloads: Premium subscribers can download media and files at the fastest possible speed. You can access everything in your unlimited cloud storage as fast as your network can keep up.
- Doubled Limits: With Premium, you can follow up to 1000 channels, create up to 20 chat folders with up to 200 chats each, add a fourth account to any Telegram app, and pin 10 chats in the main list and save up to 10 favorite stickers. You can also write a longer bio and include a link in it. Similarly, Premium allows adding more characters to media captions. Finding the proper way to respond to any message will be easier with up to 400 favorite GIFs. Lastly, Premium users can reserve up to 20 public t.me links, making any group or channel you create stand out with a short link.
- Voice-to-Text: Voice messages can be converted to text for those times you don’t want to listen, but want to see what it says. You can rate transcriptions to help improve them.
- Unique Stickers: Dozens of stickers now have impressive full-screen animations, which Premium users can send in any chat to add extra emotion and expressive effects that are visible to all users. This premium sticker collection will be updated monthly by Telegram artists. You can quickly find Premium Stickers from all your packs in a dedicated section of your sticker panel, below ‘Recently Used’.
- Unique Reactions: Premium users also unlock more ways to react to messages, with over 10 new emoji-like (and the new favorites).
- Chat Management: Telegram Premium includes new tools to organize your chat list – like changing your default chat folder so the app always opens on a custom folder or, say, Unread instead of All Chats. To change your default folder, press and hold a folder in your chat list > Reorder > and drag your preferred folder to the first space. Additionally, subscribers can enable a setting in Privacy and Security to automatically archive and mute new chats, helping organize even the busiest chat lists.
- Animated Profile Pictures: The profile videos of premium users will animate for everyone throughout the app – including in chats and the chat list. Let everyone see your new look, or flex your creativity with a unique looping animation.
- Premium Badges: All premium users get a special badge that appears next to their name in the chat list, chat headers, and member lists in groups – showing that they help support Telegram and are part of the club that receives exclusive features first.
- Premium App Icons: New icons are available that premium users can add to their Home Screen to better match their personality or wallpaper. Choose from a premium star, night sky, or turbo-plane.
- No Ads: In some countries, Sponsored Messages are shown on large, public one-to-many channels. These minimalist, privacy-conscious advertisements help support Telegram’s operating costs, but will no longer appear for subscribers of Telegram Premium.
- Join Requests for Public Groups: Public groups can now enable join requests – allowing group admins to review new members before approving them to write in the chat. Users who open the group can tap “Request to Join,” adding their request to a list that only admins can access. Admins can reach out to users who want to join and have a chat to cover the rules, make sure they’re a good fit, or even plan a welcome party. When an admin reaches out, Telegram lets the user know they’re reaching out as a group admin. Owners of public groups can enable join requests via Group Info > Edit > Group Type > Who Can Send Messages > select Only Members > enable Approve New Members.
- Verification Badges in Chats: Public figures and organizations can verify their group, channel, or bot – receiving a verification badge to show users that messages are coming from a confirmed source. In addition to profiles, search results, and the chat list, these badges now appear at the top of the chat. This makes it even easier to identify verified sources of information. If you’re verified on at least two social networks, you can verify your group, channel, or bot.
- Better Bots: Bots on Telegram can help you take quizzes, accept payments, and even replace whole websites. Bot developers can now include a photo or video in the “What can this bot do?” section of their bots to show off their features. Bots that are integrated into the attachment menu can now also work in groups and channels in addition to one-on-one chats. The Bot API is a free and open platform, available to everyone.
- Improved Chat Previews on Android: This update brings improved chat previews on par with iOS. Now you can scroll through them to view the whole chat without marking it as read. New buttons have been added to let you mark the chat as read, mute it, pin it or delete it. To preview a chat, simply press and hold its profile picture in your chat list.
- Automatic Saving to Gallery on Android: The option to automatically save media to Gallery is back with renewed vigor: saving media can now be enabled and disabled separately for chats with users, groups, or channels.
- Improved External Sharing on iOS: With the ability to send files up to 2 GB (or 4 GB), users can easily share large media items from other apps directly to Telegram on any mobile platform. This saves both time and storage space – so you don’t have to save the file before sending it in Telegram. When sending large files shared from another app on iOS, you can now watch an animated progress bar to find out if you have enough time for a tea or if you should stick with espresso.
- Animated Profile Picture Creator on macOS: Users on macOS now have a quick way to generate a custom profile picture – choose any sticker or animated emoji as the focus, and add a colorful gradient background. You can set one for your profile, or as a group or channel photo – making it easy to create a themed icon for chats without searching for stock photos. To create one of these, go to Settings or a Chat Info page, click Edit > click the Profile Picture > select Sticker or Emoji.
Getting to know all of this information should help you decide on whether to subscribe to the premium service or keep being a free user. If you want to give the premium membership a trial, here’s how to go about it.
Steps on how to subscribe to Telegram premium
- Update your Telegram app to the latest version on Google Play Store or Apple Store.
- Launch the app and head over to the “Settings” tab and tap “Telegram Premium” from the list of available options.
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- Tap the subscribe button, a screen should pop up, to confirm payment to complete the subscription process.
According to Telegram, premium subscriptions help Telegram pay not only for the additional expenses of premium features but also support the free version of Telegram for everyone.
