What's new in 8.5:
Video Stickers, Better Reactions and More

Video Stickers
• Use a new type of detailed stickers with smooth animations.
• Create new sets by sending .webm videos to @stickers.
• Bring your custom animated stickers from other apps.

Reactions
• Right click a message for more reactions.
• Group and Channel admins can enable reactions in their chat via Chat Info > Edit > Reactions.
• See real-time animations in chat when a user reacts to your message.
• React with additional emoji: 🥰🤯🤔🤬👏.

Read Status for Reactions
• Tap the new button in chats to jump to your messages that have unseen reactions.
• Watch the animations for unseen reactions play when you hit the button.

Microsoft Store | Direct download | Read more

🏆 Design Competition, Round 2: Results

We are pleased to recognize the progress many designers achieved in the Second Round.

This round required designers to take on a different platform, and they delivered – bringing modern and fresh concepts to transform @unigram for Windows 11.

In total, 22 out of 23 participants have earned a prize. Unfortunately, we could not award Groovy Mink's entry due to it having an insufficient number of screens. Thanks to everyone for participating in the contest – and congratulations to the winners!

1st PLACE – $3,500
🥇Sunny Swan
🥇Mighty Unicorn
🥇Happy Squid

2nd PLACE – $2,000
🥈Groovy Ladybird
🥈Cute Lemur
🥈Busy Phoenix
🥈Clever Cow
🥈Groovy Fox
🥈Hardy Bull
🥈Mad Spider

3rd PLACE – $1,500
🥉Swift Shark
🥉Crazy Peacock
🥉Keen Pony
🥉Grim Shark
🥉Dreamy Leopard
🥉Sexy Leopard
🥉Tactful Turkey
🥉Night Gnat

4th PLACE – $1,000
🎖Holy Eagle
🎖Fit Wolf
🎖Stone Swallow
🎖Tanned Cat

What's new 8.6:
Download Manager, Live Streams with other apps and More

Download Manager
• Check the status of media and file downloads by tapping the new icon in the Search bar.
• View recently downloaded files from the new ‘Downloads’ tab in Search.
• Pause and resume unfinished downloads.

Live Streams with other apps
• Manage Live Streams in your groups and channels using external software such as OBS Studio or XSplit Broadcaster.

Phone Number Links
• Share a direct t.me link to your phone number that instantly opens a chat with you.
• Use the full number in international format, like t.me/+123456789

Microsoft Store | Direct download | Read more

What's new in 8.8:
700 MILLION USERS AND TELEGRAM PREMIUM

Telegram now has over 700 million active users. To celebrate, we're launching Telegram Premium. This subscription helps support Telegram and gives you access to exclusive additional features. All existing Telegram features remain free for everyone.

NEW PREMIUM FEATURES

Premium: 4 GB Uploads
• Send media and files each up to 4 GB in size.

Premium: Faster Downloads
• Download media and files at the fastest possible speed, with no limits.

Premium: Doubled Limits
• Follow up to 1000 channels.
• Connect 4 accounts in any app.
• Organize your chats into 20 folders, holding 200 chats each.
• Pin 10 chats in your main list.
• Reserve up to 20 public t.me links.
• Save 400 favorite GIFs and 10 favorite stickers.
• Write a longer bio for your profile and include links.
• Include longer captions for photos and videos.

Premium: Voice-to-Text
• Get a new button next to any voice message to generate a transcript of its audio.

Premium: Unique Reactions and Stickers
• React with even more emoji, including 🤡 and 😍
• Send unique stickers with additional effects, updated monthly.

Premium: Chat Management
• Set a default chat folder or enable tools to auto-archive and hide new chats.

Premium: Badges and Animated Profile Pictures
• Subscribers have a badge next to their name, showing they help support Telegram.
• Show off your profile video that will be animated for everyone in chats and the chat list.

Premium: No Ads
• Sponsored Messages that are sometimes shown in public channels will no longer appear.

To subscribe and get access to these features, go to Settings > Telegram Premium.

NEW FREE FEATURES

This update also includes many changes for all users – just like every future update will.

Join Requests for Public Groups
• Enable join requests for your public groups – no invite links required.
• Users who open the group will see an 'Apply to Join Group' button.
• Once approved by an admin, users will be able to participate in the chat.

Verification Badges in Chats
• Verified groups and channels now also show their badge at the top of the chat.

Better Bots
• Include a photo or video in the "What can this bot do?" section of your bot.
• Bots that are integrated into the attachment menu can be programmed to work in groups and channels.

Microsoft Store | Direct download | Read more

Unigram 8.8 comes with a shiny new interface, designed by Telegram, to perfectly match Windows 11 design language.

What's new in 8.9:
ANIMATED EMOJI IN MESSAGES, NEW STICKER PANEL, PRIVACY SETTINGS FOR VOICE MESSAGES, AND GIFTING TELEGRAM PREMIUM

New Sticker Panel
• Switch between sticker, emoji and GIF tabs to quickly find what you're looking for.
• Enjoy a more vibrant design with semi-transparency and improved scrolling performance on older devices.
• When typing a message, the sticker button turns into an emoji button that opens the emoji panel.

Premium: Custom Emoji Packs
• Add animated emoji from 10 new custom packs – with countless more coming.
• Get animated emoji suggestions from your packs when you enter any static emoji.
• Press and hold on a message containing emoji to see which packs were used.
• Create your own custom emoji packs for Premium subscribers.
• All Telegram users can see emoji from any pack — and try them out for free in the Saved Messages chat.

Premium: Privacy Settings for Voice Messages
• Control who can send or forward you voice messages in Settings > Privacy and Security with Telegram Premium.
• Create exceptions to add individual users or groups of users.

Gifting Telegram Premium
• Send a prepaid Premium subscription to any user from their profile page.
• Choose from a 3, 6 or 12 month duration – at a discounted price.

Microsoft Store | Direct download | Read more

What's new in 9.0:
INFINITE REACTIONS, EMOJI STATUSES AND MUCH MORE

Infinite Reactions
• A new expandable reaction menu was added in private chats and groups.
• All users get access to dozens of new reactions, including reactions previously reserved for Premium users.
• The reactions you use most frequently will always be displayed at the top.
• Premium users can react to messages with thousands of custom emoji and add up to 3 reactions to each message.

Reaction Management
• Group admins can control whether custom reactions are allowed in their groups.
• We've added an option to report spam when opening a user's profile from a reaction. (Internet rule number N: if something exists, sooner or later, it will be used for spam).

Premium: Emoji Statuses
• Premium users can add an animated emoji status next to their name to display their current activity.
• To set a status, tap your Premium badge in the chat list or Settings.
• Popular suggestions for working, sleeping, traveling and more will be shown at the top.
• To set a status for a specific duration like 1 hour or 2 days, press and hold the emoji.

New Username Links
• A new format was supported for username links, in addition to "t.me/username." You can now open Telegram accounts, groups or channels using links like "username.t.me" or "https://username.t.me."

Improved Login Flow
• We've improved the registration and login experience with slick animations and a smoother UI.
• If you frequently re-login on Telegram, you can sign in faster using your email.

Microsoft Store | Direct download | Read more

Unigram 9.0 (7794) has been released to the Microsoft Store. This update includes some important changes that greatly improve the application speed on outdated hard drives. The update also available for direct download from here.

What's new in 9.2:
GLOBAL AUTO-DELETE, TOPICS 2.0 AND MUCH MORE

Global Auto-Delete
• You can set a Global Auto-Delete Timer for all new chats and groups you create.
• New messages will be deleted after 1 day, week, month – or a custom duration you choose.
• The new menu in Settings > Privacy & Security > Auto-Delete Messages also lets you set up Auto-Delete for any of your existing chats faster.

Aggressive Anti-Spam for Groups
• Large groups can enable 'Aggressive Filtering' in Group Info > Administrators to remove more spam with automated algorithms.
• Admins help improve filtering by reporting any false positives in 'Recent Actions'.

Temporary QR Codes
• The QR Code page in Settings can now generate a temporary code for users who don’t have a username and hide their phone number from everyone.
• Show this code to others if you want them to add you as a contact without sharing any details.

Improved Emoji and Sticker Search
• You can search for basic and custom emoji in the Emoji tab of the Sticker Panel using hundreds of keywords like ‘smile’, ‘heart’ or 'hypnotoad'.
• More keywords can be suggested via translations.telegram.org/en/emoji
• Sticker search will also show stickers that match these keywords.
• Tapping on custom emoji in any message now shows you which emoji pack they came from.

Microsoft Store | Direct download | Read more

What's new in 9.3:
HIDDEN MEDIA, PROFILE PICTURES FOR YOUR CONTACTS, AND PUPPIES

We found someone's letter to Santa and implemented everything on the list:

Hidden Media
• Media with spoiler effects. You can wrap photos and videos you send in a fuzzy cover by selecting media in the attachment menu and tapping (⋯) > Hide With Spoiler.

Profile Pictures for Your Contacts
• Setting pictures for your contacts. You can choose your own picture for a contact – only you will see it on their profile.
• Suggested profile pictures. When editing your contacts, you can suggest a photo for their profile. It will take them just two taps to add the picture you suggested.
• Public profile pictures. If you only allow certain users to see your profile photos, you can set a public picture for everyone else.
• Ultimate profile picture privacy. You can set 'Who can see my profile photos' to 'Nobody' and add some users or groups as exceptions.

Hiding Members in Large Groups
• Member list privacy. Owners of large groups can hide the list of members.

The letter also mentioned taking over the world and a puppy, but we hope the real Santa will be able to handle that – now that we've done the rest.

Microsoft Store | Direct download | Read more

What's new in 9.5:
POWER SAVING AND MORE

Power Saving Mode
• One switch to disable all resource-intensive animations and autoplay for media, stickers and emoji.
• Power saving mode turns on automatically based on battery charge.

Granular Playback Speed
• Fully flexible playback speed settings for videos, voice and video messages.
• Tap the “2X” button to quickly switch between 1-1.5-2x speed – or hold it to set any speed between 0.2-2.5x.

Read Time in Small Groups
• Read receipts in groups under 100 members now show the time when your messages were read.

Improved Group Invites
• When inviting people to groups, you can quickly send invite links to anyone who doesn't allow adding them directly.
• Invite links now show previews in chats.

And More
• Toggle dynamic pack order. Choose if you want recently used sticker packs to be displayed above the older ones in the panel.
• Fully translatable bots. Bot descriptions and “What can this bot do?” sections can now be translated.
• Improved folder support. Mark all messages in a folder as read and use folders when forwarding.

Microsoft Store | Direct download | Read more

It is now possible to translate the app to different languages (including custom ones) from translations.telegram.org.
Additionally, we’re moving bug reports and feature suggestions from GitHub to bugs.telegram.org.

What's new in 9.6:
SHAREABLE FOLDERS AND CUSTOM WALLPAPERS

Shareable Folders
• Share folders that include dozens of chats with friends or colleagues.
• Anyone you invite can add the folder and join all its chats in one tap.
• You can create multiple invite links to give different people access to different chats in the folder.

Custom Wallpapers
• Set a custom wallpaper for any 1-on-1 chat.
• Your chat partner can apply the same wallpaper – or choose their own.

Microsoft Store | Direct download | Read more

Time flies and it’s been already seven years since the initial release of the app. Lots of great things happened, and many still have to come, I hope to share more stories with you soon!

Unigram 10.0 came out today bringing quite a bit of new features. As Telegram turned 10 years old yesterday, I’ll leave the explanations to the official blog post.