Telegram Features

The text is a little bit hard to read, but I tried to figure it out.
Please note that it's probably still a draft and I might also have added some errors and typos.

Payments for Bots

\\\ Today's Telegram update is featuring other two major features - Video messages, Telescope and Instant View Platform \\\

Imagine a world where you can order a pitta, pay for a pair of shoes, hire a car or refill your metrocard all of it just by tapping a few buttons on Telegram.

To make this possible, today we are launching bot Payments - a way fr bots to accept payments from their users worldwide.

{VIDEO DEMO}

If you have Telegram v.XX (or newer) installed, don't be surprised if a bot adds a pay button or something you can order from it. Once you tap Pay, you be asked to fill in the credit card information (only once) and confirm the payment. After that, ordering stuff from bots will take only two taps!

Telegram is an open platform, so bot developers can implement the necessary APIs and accept payments from users starting right now, without lengthy confirmations. If you're a bot developer, check out the docs!

{DOG SOMEWERE ON THE RIGHT}

Currently most of the payments are handled by Struipe, but Bot Payments are a platform for payment providers all over the world. If you're a payment provider (especially in a developing country), please check out the docs here.

When accepting a payment from a user, Bot developer can choose between all available payments proviers, selecting the one already used by the payer or the one with the lowest commission.

Each payment goes directly from the user to the bot developer. Telegram does not take any commission from the payments and doesn't profit from these transactions. We also don't see or store the credit card data. This makes it impossible for Telegram to handle complaints or cashbacks - so the disputed payments will be dealt by the bot developers, the payment providers and the banks.

As for us, we`ll do what every sheriff has to do: kill the bad bots and award the good ones with a badge. We're sure there'll be plenty of good ones.

Happy shopping!
Telegram Team.

Future features: What we know so far

Since it's still April 1st in some regions, I'll add sources for everything.

1. Calls are coming to Telegram Desktop, probably this month. (source)

2. Videocalls should be coming one day to fully replace WhatsApp and Messenger (and Skype etc.). (source)

3. Something "quite revolutionary" considering translations to other languages is coming in a few weeks. (source)

4. Many more websites will be supported by Instant View. (source)

5. The bot API will be updated soon. (source)

6. A Payment API is on it's way, you'll be able to transfer money to other Telegram users. (source)

7. You might be able to disable P2P for calls in a future version, so that your partner does not see your IP-adress. (source)

8. Telegram for iOS will probably be replaced with a rewritten version with some new features and a better UI. (source)

We'll be back as soon as we know more.

Secure

Telegram Calls are built upon the time-tested end-to-end encryption of Telegram's Secret Chats. The key verification UI we came up with in 2013 to protect against man-in-the-middle attacks served well for Telegram (and for other apps that adopted it), but for Calls we needed something easier.

That‘s why we’ve improved the key exchange mechanism. To make sure your call is 100% secure, you and your recipient just need to compare four emoji over the phone. No lengthy codes or complicated pictures!

Super-Fast

Whenever possible, your calls will go over a peer-to-peer connection, using the best audio codecs to save traffic while providing crystal-clear quality.

If a peer-to-peer connection can't be established, Telegram will use the closest server to you to connect you with the person you’re calling in the fastest way possible. Unlike other apps, Telegram has a distributed infrastructure all over the world which we’ve already been using to deliver your texts faster than other apps. Now these servers will also be used for calls.

In the coming months, we’ll be expanding our content delivery network around the globe, getting the connection up to light-speed even in remote areas.

AI-Powered

Each time you make a Voice Call on Telegram, a neural network learns from your and your device‘s feedback (naturally, it doesn’t have access to the contents of the conversation, it has only technical information such as network speed, ping times, packet loss percentage, etc.). The machine optimizes dozens of parameters based on this input, improving the quality of future calls on the given device and network.

These parameters can also be adjusted during a conversation if there's a change in your connection. Telegram will adapt and provide excellent sound quality on stable WiFi — or use less data when you walk into a refrigerator with bad reception.

According to our tests, Telegram Calls are already superior to any of our competitors on comparable connections. But the quality of Telegram Calls will further improve as you and others use them, thanks to the built-in machine learning.

Complete Control

If you’re like us, you don’t like to be bothered. On Telegram, you can control who can and who can't call you with granular precision. You can even switch voice calls off altogether, blocking anyone and everyone from calling you.

By default, Telegram calls are lightweight and automatically adapt to the speed and type of your connection, so as to consume the least data possible. But if you want to reduce your data spending by another 25-30% at the expense of sound quality, you’re welcome to enable the Use Less Data option in Data and Storage Settings.

No Added Calories

Telegram is the most powerful messaging platform out there, but it is also famous for being the easiest one to use. We want to keep things this way, and that’s why by default we won’t clutter your screen with additional tabs and redundant buttons.

Once you start making calls, Telegram for iOS will offer you to add a dedicated tab for calls on the main screen of the app. Alternatively, you can turn the Calls tab on right away from the Recent Calls section in Settings. On Android, the call tab is accessible via the pull-out main menu on the left.

It‘s always easy to make a call, even if you’ve never opened the calls tab. As soon as Voice Calls are enabled for your country, a phone icon will appear on every profile page. On Android, you can also call from the ‘…’ menu in a chat.

Voice Calls: Secure, Crystal-Clear, AI-Powered

Over the past few months, we’ve worked hard to make sure Telegram calls are the best in terms of quality, speed, and security. The wait is over: today we’re rolling out Voice Calls in Western Europe. The rest of the world will get them very soon as well.

The Voice Call interface is familiar and easy to use, but as always, you get loads of innovation under the hood with Telegram.

Telegram 3.18 for iOS seems to be still in review for the Apple AppStore.
Meanwhile, Telegram is developing a completely new version for iOS in the programming language Swift.

The app will have a new design, new animations and some new features, like a new music player.
It might also allow audio streaming.