During the 'COVID-19' coronavirus pandemic that plagues the world, the popular instant messaging service Telegram has been busy.
Following its seventh birthday, the app comes with some great news. The app has added another batch of new animated emoji, and most importantly, the long-awaited video calling feature.
According to its blog post, the team behind Telegram decided to implement video calls this 2020 mainly because more people are now using “face-to-face communication” to communicate with others.
The company noted that the video call feature is initially introduced in alpha version, meaning that it should be far from stable and may not be reliable.
But still, it can be used by anyone with the latest version of Telegram installed.
The video-calling feature on Telegram works similar to others in the competition.
To initiate a call, users can do the usual procedure, by simply tapping on other users' profile whom they wish to initiate a video call, to then select the video call option.
Users can switch video on or off at any time during a call. The video call feature also supports picture-in-picture mode, meaning that users can continue scrolling through the app while still making a video call.
Video calling feature on Telegram is so years behind. Others in the competition have already offered video calls, and polished the feature by improving it tremendously. And unlike rivals which tend to offer group video calls, Telegram's video chat is strictly for one-on-one.
But what makes it unlike some others in the competition is that, Telegram video calls are all protected with end-to-end encryption.
To confirm the secure connection, users can compare the four emoji shown on-screen. If they match, they can assure that the call is 100% secured by time-tested encryption also used in Telegram’s Secret Chats and Voice Calls.
Telegram said that its apps "have reproducible builds, so anyone can verify encryption and confirm that their app uses the exact same open source code that we publish with each update." Telegram added that its video calling feature will "receive more features and improvements in future versions, as we work toward launching group video calls in the coming months.”
It all began back in April, when Telegram first announced that it would launch group video calls later this 2020.
While Telegram finally launched the feature, it was met with a little roadblock.
The update was quickly received by Google, where Telegram was able to push the app with the video calling feature to Android users. But Apple took a longer time to review the updated version of the app, meaning that iOS users were a bit behind.
"We would like to apologize to all our iOS users for launching this feature on Android only. Apple has failed to review this update in time, even though we submitted it to the App Store several days before sending it to Google Play," said the team in a statement that has been removed from its website following Apple's acceptance of the update.
So here, after the more recent Telegram update that introduced 2GB file sharing, group stats and more, it seems that Pavel Durov's messaging app is coming prepared.
With the features, Telegram is ready to conquer more realms, slowly but steadily, in a confident manner. What's more, Telegram is making itself more capable of becoming a better alternative to those who don't want to use the Facebook branded products.
With more than 400 million users all over the world, the platform claims that it’s one of the top 10 downloaded apps all over the world to stay in touch with people.
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