Telegram introduces Premium subscriptions at $4.99 a month

Source: Reuters

Messaging app Telegram has rolled out Telegram Premium, a monthly subscription service that gives paid users access to exclusive features.

The subscription plan has been priced at $4.99 per month (around Rs 389). Some of the features that the team highlighted in a blog post are the ability to upload 4GB files, against a 2GB limit imposed on free users.

Premium users also will also be able to download media at the fastest possible speed. There are doubled usage limits across the board for paid users as well, such as the ability to follow and join up to 1,000 channels, create up to 20 chat folders with 200 chats per folder, support for a fourth account, and the ability to pin 10 chats in the main list and save up to 10 stickers.

The subscription will also let user's create longer profile bios along with support for links. Premium users can add more characters to media captions and can save up to 400 favorite GIFs. They can also reserve up to 20 public t.me links.

Voice-to-text allows premium users to get full transcriptions for voice messages and they can also rate them to improve transcriptions. Paid users also get dozens of exclusive stickers, extra emotion and expression effects that can be viewed by free members, the post said.

Unique reactions are also part of the suite, and better chat management, with options to change default chat folders. Paid users can also have animated profile videos, that will play for everyone throughout the app, including chats and chat lists.

Premium users get a special Premium badge that will appear next to their name in chat lists, chat headers and member lists. You also have access to Premium app icons, and Telegram lets you select between three to put on your home screen. There are no ads for Premium subscribers.

It is not clear when the subscription will be available for users in India or how it will be priced. A few days ago, India Today Tech shared to screen grab of a Windows 11 user who claimed to have access to Telegram Premium.

The screenshot indicated that the service will be priced at Rs 349 in India but there is no official confirmation. At the time of writing, this writer had not got the update.