Telegram Programming Language
Oleta Blaylock
Telegram Messenger, commonly known as Telegram, is a cloud-based, cross-platform, instant messaging (IM) service. It was originally launched for iOS on 14 August 2013 and Android on 20 October 2013. It allows users to exchange messages, share media and files, and hold private and group voice or video calls as well as public livestreams. It is available for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, and web browsers. Telegram also offers end-to-end encryption in voice and video calls,[10] and in optional private chats, which Telegram calls Secret Chats.
Telegram also has social networking features, allowing users to post stories, create large public groups with up to 200,000 members, or share one-way updates to unlimited audiences in so-called channels.[11]
Telegram was founded in 2013 by Nikolai and Pavel Durov.[12][13] Its servers are distributed worldwide with several data centers, while the headquarter is in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.[14][15] Telegram is the most popular instant messaging application in parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa.[16][17]
As of March 2024,[update] Telegram has more than 900 million monthly active users,[18] with India leading in the number of users.[19] It was the most downloaded app worldwide in January 2021[20][21] with 1 billion downloads globally as of late August 2021.
Telegram was launched in 2013 by the brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov. Previously, the pair founded the Russian social network VK, which they left in 2014, saying it had been taken over by the government.[22] Pavel sold his remaining stake in VK and left Russia after resisting government pressure.[23] Nikolai created the MTProto protocol that is the basis for the messenger, while Pavel provided financial support and infrastructure through his Digital Fortress fund.[24] Telegram Messenger states that its end goal is not to bring profit,[25][26] but it is not structured as a non-profit organization.[27]
Telegram is registered as a company in the British Virgin Islands[9] and as an LLC in Dubai.[28][29] It does not disclose where it rents offices or which legal entities it uses to rent them, citing the need to "shelter the team from unnecessary influence" and protect users from governmental data requests.[30] After Pavel left Russia in 2014, he was said to be moving from country to country with a small group of computer programmers consisting of 15 core members.[23][31] While a former employee of VK claimed that Telegram had employees in Saint Petersburg,[32] Pavel said the Telegram team made Berlin, Germany, its headquarters in 2014,[33] but failed to obtain German residence permits for everyone on the team and moved to other jurisdictions in early 2015.[32] Since 2017, the company has been based in Dubai.[34] It has a complex corporate structure of shell companies to delay complying with government subpoenas.[35]
On 24 March 2014, Telegram announced that it had reached 35 million monthly users and 15 million daily active users.[36] In October 2014, South Korean government surveillance plans drove many of its citizens to switch to Telegram from the Korean app KakaoTalk.[33] In December 2014, Telegram announced that it had 50 million active users, generating 1 billion daily messages, and that it had 1 million new users signing up on its service every week,[37] traffic doubled in five months with 2 billion daily messages.[38] In September 2015, Telegram announced that the app had 60 million active users and delivered 12 billion daily messages.[39]
In February 2016, Telegram announced that it had 100 million monthly active users, with 350,000 new users signing up every day, delivering 15 billion messages daily.[40] In December 2017, Telegram reached 180 million monthly active users.[41] By March 2018, that number had doubled, with Telegram reaching 200 million monthly active users.[42]
On 14 March 2019, Pavel claimed that "3 million new users signed up for Telegram within the last 24 hours."[43] He did not specify what prompted this flood of new sign-ups, but the period matched a prolonged technical outage experienced by Facebook and its family of apps, including Instagram.[44] According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, as of October 2019, Telegram had 300 million monthly active users worldwide.[45]
On 8 January 2021, Pavel announced in a blog post that Telegram had reached "about 500 million" monthly active users.[47] In August, TechCrunch reported that India was Telegram's largest market, with a 22% share of total installs coming from the region.[48] Telegram then gained over 70 million new users as a result of an outage which affected Facebook and its affiliates on 5 October 2021.[49]
In March 2022, Telegram's usage share in Russia had jumped to 63%, overtaking WhatsApp's usage share of 32% to become the most popular messaging app in the country.[50] On 19 June 2022, Telegram announced that it had reached 700 million monthly active users.[51][52]
To start using Telegram, a user must sign-up with their phone number or an anonymous +888 number purchased from the Fragment blockchain platform.[56][57] Changing the phone number in the app will automatically reassign the user's account to that number without the need to export data or notify their contacts.[56][58][59] Phone numbers are hidden by default with only a user's contacts being able to see them. Sign-ups can only be done via an Android or iOS device.[60][61] Upon signing up, messages sent and received by the user are tied to their number and a custom username,[62] not the device. Any Telegram content is synced between the user's logged-in devices automatically through cloud storage, except for device-specific secret chats. By default, any account that is inactive for 6 months by default is automatically deleted, though the period can be shortened or extended up to 12 months through the Settings menu. Telegram allows groups, bots and channels with a verified social media or Wikipedia page to be verified, but not individual user accounts.[63][64]
Users can however import chat history, including both messages and media, from WhatsApp, Line and Kakaotalk due to data portability, either making a new chat to hold the messages or adding them to an existing one.[65][66]
Any message in any chat can be translated by opening the context menu. Premium users have the option to translate the whole chat with one click. Users can hide the translate button for messages written in specific languages.
Reactions can be used to respond to a message with emoji, with Premium users having access to more reaction choices and the ability to leave more reactions per message. Reactions are always on in private chats and can be enabled by admins in groups and channels with the ability to allow or exclude specific reactions. Reaction emoji play an animation with special effects when sent.[68][69]
Users can also send stickers, which can be static, animated or video.[70] Sticker packs are made by Telegram designers as well as regular users and can be shared via links. They use the WebP[71] or WebM format and do not require special software to create or upload. Some stickers feature full-screen effects that play out when first sent or when tapped.
Telegram users can create and join groups and channels. Groups are large multi-user chats that support up to 200,000 members and can be public or private. Users can freely join public chats and find them using the in-app search function, while private chats require an invitation. They support flexible admin rights and can use bots for moderation to prevent spam and unwanted activity. Groups can be split into topics, effectively creating subgroups dedicated to various subjects with separate settings for each.[86]
Admins can choose to hide the list of members in a group, as well as post anonymously themselves.[87] Similarly, groups and channels can have content protection enabled, which prevents screenshots, forwarding and downloading of media.[88][89] Ownership of channels and groups can be transferred to one of the admins if the owner wishes to give up their rights.
Groups and channels also support polls, which can be open or anonymous and can support multiple choices. When forwarded, polls retain the answer data and any votes cast in other chats will count toward the overall total.[90][91]
Channels are one-way feeds where the channel owner or admins can post content while followers can only read, react and comment, if comments have been enabled.[92][93] Channels can be created for broadcasting messages to an unlimited number of subscribers.[94] The list of those who subscribe to a channel can only be seen by its admins. Posting in the channel is anonymous, though admins can choose to add signatures to their posts. Channels offer detailed statistics on view counts, user growth and interactions, also visible only to admins.[95] Channel owners are able to use Telegram to create giveaways, randomly awarding channel members with prizes such as Telegram Premium subscriptions to their followers, based on certain criteria.[96] Users with a Telegram Premium subscription have a number of "boosts" that they can give to channels, which allow the channel to "level up" and unlock features, such as the ability to customize messages or post stories as the channel.[97]
In December 2019, Bloomberg News moved their messenger-based newsletter service from WhatsApp to Telegram after the former banned bulk and automated messaging.[98][99] Other news services with official channels on the platform include the Financial Times,[100] Business Insider[101] and The New York Times.[102]
Channels have also been used by governments and heads of state. Notable examples include Volodymyr Zelensky[103] and Emmanuel Macron.[104] Channels have been used by journalists in oppressive regimes to establish independent news networks.[105]
The Telegram also provides an open API for the creation of custom bots which can perform various tasks, integrate other services into Telegram chats, or work as mini apps or games.[106] Most of them works on 8XR game engine or others.[107][108]
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