Telegram, a cloud-based messaging service, has finally launched its Premium Subscription service which will go at a price of $4.99 per month, according to TechCrunch.
Premium subscribers will get improved features including fast downloads, a much larger file upload, and longer bios with a link.
The social media platform recently celebrated having reached 700 million users and being in the top 5 of the most downloaded apps in 2022. It saus says that this growth comes solely from personal recommendations, it wrote in a blog post. It adds that it has never paid to advertise the app.
The social media platform that is now among the most loved started gaining traction when WhatsApp made changes to its privacy policy in 2021. People sort of lost trust in the app and started migrating to other platforms including Telegram. You could say that WhatsApp rose above this because according to Statista the app had approximately 2.44 billion unique users worldwide in April 2022.
Already existing features that users rely on will still be available to those who don’t want to switch to Premium.
“Moreover, non-premium users will be able to enjoy some of Premium’s benefits: for example, download the extra-large documents and view stickers sent by premium users, as well as tap to increase counters on premium reactions that were already added to a message,” the blog post read.
“The contributions of premium subscribers will help improve and expand the app for decades to come, while Telegram will remain free, independent and uphold its users-first values, redefining how a tech company should operate,” it said.
All the premium users will receive a badge next to their name.
Telegram says that while they will be adding features for premium subscribers, they will also be adding new features free to the app’s users.
“While we are going to release more exciting features for Premium subscribers, we will keep implementing free features available for everyone, and do it faster than any other massively popular app,” it said.
By Zintle Nkohla
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