Telegram, the cloud-based instant messaging service for both mobile devices and desktop, has introduces some new goodies to its users. What they do, is to make Telegram that is known for putting anonymity and encryption to users' conversation, up to a new level.
First of all, Telegram launched Telegraph, a tool for people to publish stories on the web without having to register for an account.
The publishing tool allows people to create "rich posts with markdown, photos, and all sorts of embedded stuff." To use it, users just need to add a title and their name, then their good to go. In short, it's like a lightweight blogging platform with no distractions or gimmick.
In fact, the service that is available at telegra.ph, has nothing more than three fields and a single button on a white background to start with.
After users are finished in entering data on the "Title", "Your name" and "Your story..." field, they just need to hit "Publish" and then post the URL to the social media of their choice, or sending it to contacts via email or messaging platforms. Users' Telegram channel can run stories just like the the usual mainstream media.
Because users don't need an account to create and publish stories, they can only edit their posts only as long as their browser session is still active.
And because Telegram is known for its end-to-end-encrypted messaging, and it's selling point is anonymity, Telegraph, more or less, shares that DNA.
To use Telegraph, registration isn't required. For that reason, users can't create a profile to collect or collate their posts. There is no comments section whatsoever. Telegram is just a simple, quick and easy way to publish contents. But because of its nature, anyone can impersonate others by just using their names.
Because Telegram is Telegraph's, the both can seamlessly work together. For example, Telegraph works well with Instant View, a feature within Telegram that can be used to quickly launch stories from many websites.
Instant View was introduced alongside Telegram version 3.14, and it's somehow similar to Google's AMP and Facebook's Instant Articles with the ability to deliver contents quickly. But the feature is only available inside the Telegram app, and is only supporting just a handful of websites.
Other updates Telegram is introducing include: "Jump to Date" where users can search inside a chat to choose a day using the Calendar tool, the ability to view pack of recent stickers, and finding a group in chat that the user has forgotten the title.
Beside those, Telegram for Android introduces a new interface for creating groups and selecting users in privacy settings, a new interface for notification settings, improved security for passcode locks, improved camera as well as video compression, improved photo viewer, and making the process of editing messages and adding captions to photos easier.
In its blog post, Telegram also stated that "something big is brewing in our secret dungeons" which it will likely reveal soon.