Telegram, custom notification sounds arrive (and much more)

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Telegram received another substantial update during the Easter weekend, just over a month after the previous one and just as full of news. With the version 8.7 comes the ability to create custom notification tones, new options for muted chats, bots enhancements, and refinements of legacy features.

CUSTOM NOTIFICATION SOUNDS

With the latest update it is possible set any sound as notification tone. For example, the user can tap a short audio file or a shared voice message in chat to instantly add it to the notification sounds. The Telegram team specifies:

  • notification tones are cross-platform and free
  • notification tones can be accessed by following the path Settings> Notifications> Sounds
  • custom notification tones can be set for individual chats or entire types of chats
  • up to 5 seconds and up to 300 KB can be set as notification tones for audio files and voice messages
  • the Notification Sounds channel allows you to try some notification sounds created by the Telegram staff

MUTE CHAT DURATION

It is now possible specify more precisely how long a chat should remain muted, no longer just 8 hours or 2 days. Each chat allows you to access a simplified menu to change alerts with the options “Mute sound”, to receive changes silently, and “Silence”, to completely disable notifications. The paths to follow are:

  • On Android: tap “Notifications” in the info page of a chat or the three-dot menu and select “Silence” in the chat title
  • On iOS: Tap “Mute” on a chat info page

NEW AUTO DELETE MENU IN PROFILES

The update makes more easy activation of the self-elimination function (now fewer touches needed) e supports flexible timer settings (e.g. 2 days, 3 weeks, 4 months, etc.). Self-deletion is activated by selecting the three-dot menu on the chat info page.

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ANSWERS IN THE FORWARDED MESSAGES

The Reply previews are also included when forwarding messages in other chats. It is in fact an extension to forwarded messages of an already existing function for undelivered messages. By tapping the small preview, you can instantly jump to the original message. The user can always decide to hide the sender name and media captions from if he wants to forward the message anonymously.

NEW FOR BOTS

Telegram now offers developers the ability to create bots with Javascript with important advantages from the point of view of the user interface, as Telegram points out: cWith this, Telegram bots can completely replace any website […] These interfaces can be programmed to match a user’s theme – adjusting colors in real time, for example when switching between Day and Night modes or setting custom themes. Interested developers can consult this page.

Another novelty related to bots concerns the ability to add bots to groups and channels directly from the bot profile and immediately configure the rights and permissions of the bot: Bots can only be added to channels as administrators, while they can be added to groups as both members and administrators.

IMPROVED MESSAGE TRANSLATION ON IOS

There Translation function for iOS has been improved and supports many other languages (is now on par with those supported on Android). To activate the translations, simply follow the path Settings> Language; this will add the Translate button to the context menu when you select a message.


PICTURE IN PICTURE IMPROVED ON ANDROID

The update introduces various improvements to the Picture-in-Picture feature on Android:

  • you can pinch the window to change its size
  • by touching the “x” key you can close the window
  • the box features a new rounded design
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NEW ANIMATIONS AND NEW ANIMATED EMOJI

The interface for changing the phone number in Settings has a new look with animated ducks guiding you through the process. New animated food-themed emojis have also been introduced (see image below).