New Delhi: In a recent update Telegram messenger introduced Voice Chats 2.0, with rich features for conducting live voice chat sessions in Channels for unlimited participants in a secured and seamless manner.
This feature was earlier existing only for Telegram Groups that was launched back in December 2020.
This new update also brings recordable voice chats, rich lists of participants, raise hand mechanics, invite links for speakers and listeners, voice chat titles. In addition to this, public figures will now be able to join voice chats as their channels, and not necessarily with their personal accounts, maintaining their privacy.
Limitless Voice Chats
Admins of channels and public groups can now host voice chats for millions of live listeners. To start a Voice Chat, open the profile of any group or channel where you’re an admin, tap ([?]) or ([?]), and select Start Voice Chat.
Record Voice Chats
Admins can record the live voice chat sessions, and the audio file will be automatically saved in their ‘Saved Messages’ window right after the session. The recording can be provided to other members who have missed the live session. All the participants would be able to see whether a chat is being recorded or not with the help of a red light right next to the title of the voice chat.
Raise Hands
In a live chat session where the participants are muted, listeners can give an alert to the admins if they want to speak by raising their hand. For admins to easily recognize a particular participant’s credentials, their bio is now visible to them where the subject expertise could be mentioned.
Admins can easily decide and select a speaking slot accordingly.
Speaker and Listener Links
Admins of public groups and channels can now create invite links that opens the voice chat right away on clicking. In addition to this, separate links can be made for speakers and listeners. This way admins can easily manage the speaker list, and whom to mute or unmute. Users can also share the listener’s link in different community groups for better reach of the session. Voice chats also have a separate title to better explain the topic of discussion or a particular voice chat session.
Join As in feature
Celebrities can join a voice chat with the name of their dedicated public Channel on Telegram instead of their personal accounts. This overall helps to maintain their privacy of the personal accounts, and their Channel can be promoted in mass as well.
Additional features – Cancel forwarded message or replace recipient, listen to voice messages from where you left
Users can now cancel forwarding a message or replace the recipient before it gets sent. This provides a chance to edit forwarding if they have forwarded a wrong message, or to the wrong person. Moreover, users can now listen to voice messages from wherever they left them before, no need to shuffle and match the previous timeframe.
This feature was only limited to long audio and video tracks before. Android users can choose which action is assigned to swiping left in the chat list: archiving chats, pinning, muting, deleting, or marking them as read. (On iOS, all these swipe actions are always available, depending on which way you swipe.)