Chat app Telegram, which became profitable last year, released new updates to its apps, including improved sticker search, choosing video covers, and the ability to copy videos at the current time.
The company first released its AI-powered sticker search in December, which allowed you to look for stickers using natural language. However, it was limited to only 40,000 stickers. With the new update, when you input queries like “Thinking monkey” or “Dog eyebrow raise,” you get results from millions of stickers across the platform.
The app also released features to enhance video consumption on the platform. Users can now share a link to a video hosted on Telegram with an exact time stamp, just like YouTube. Users can now also choose a frame for the video as the cover photo — like video thumbnails on other platforms. You can also use the video editor to add text, stickers, and emoji to the cover.
Telegram is also adding support for saved progress for the video. That means you can resume watching a clip from where you left off.
While there are channels that post content they own on the platform, Telegram is also notorious for hosting pirated video content on the app. The company removed 15 million groups and channels last year, but not all of them were related to piracy.
In 2023, Telegram started to boost its channels feature by adding new discovery features like suggesting similar channels when they join one. The company is now applying a similar concept to finding new bots. On the profile of a bot service, you will see a “Similar Bots” tab where you can find related bots.