The privacy-focused messaging app is popular for the reasons it's always wanted. And things get better.
Unlike its main rival, Meta's WhatsApp, Telegram is more into providing privacy, in the sense that its service is not tied to anything that requires user data and information to survive. Unlike Meta, Telegram is not backed by some tech companies that has a history of privacy concerns.
Because of this, Telegram is much more flexible in providing privacy-focused features, because it has always been its intention from the beginning.
And this time, the app is refining its in-app experience, adding a new way to interact with the browser and a Mini App Store for native applications.
In a blog post, Telegram said that:
First up, is Telegram Browser.
With users, users can open web pages like they normally would when using ordinary browsers. And here, Telegram has refined things a bit, but allowing users to collapse those pages, and reopen them from the bottom bar.
This way, users can freely move between their messages and websites, instant view articles, and mini apps.
And here, the browser also supports decentralized websites hosted on TON - in all mobile and native desktop apps.
What this means, Telegram is making Web3 web pages immediately available to its almost one billion monthly users.
Then, users can receive notifications while reading an article, viewing a web page, or playing a game, check on messages, and return to the browser without losing anything.
Users can even bookmark the pages they visit, and return to it at a later time.
This addition should come in handy for those users who frequently use the in-app browser rather than opening it in Chrome or another browser.
Next up, is a mini app store.
This can be accessed through the newly added 'Apps' tab in the Search function, which shows a list of apps users use, and also a list of popular mini apps users can download.
We've added a new 'Apps' tab in Search which shows a list of apps you use and a list of popular mini apps.
"Now you can quickly access all your games and services — or find something new," Telegram said. "Developers can now upload video demos and screenshots for their mini app previews to let users know what to expect."
Mini apps that utilize Telegram Stars now have a chance to be shown in the 'Popular Apps' section.
Mini apps can also generate custom story content — like AI-generated videos, achievements, or snapshots of leaderboards — for users to share as a Telegram Story right from the mini app.
This enables new kinds of apps — and helps existing ones spread among their users' contacts.
According to Telegram, more than 500 million out of its more than 950 million users interact with mini apps every month.
Other additions include gifting Stars to other users, having the front flash to turn on while recording video messages, a weather widget in Stories, choosing stories as covers, and the launch of the said browser and mini apps tabs on Telegram's MacOS app.