Telegram has announced several updates to its app, including improvements to sticker search, video features, and bot discovery.
The chat app, which turned profitable in 2022, is enhancing its platform with these new functionalities.
Sticker search, initially launched in December with AI-powered natural language search, has been significantly expanded. Previously limited to 40,000 stickers, the search now indexes millions of stickers.
Users can now search using phrases like “Thinking monkey” or “Dog eyebrow raise” to find relevant stickers.
Video features have also been improved. Users can now share Telegram-hosted videos with specific time stamps, similar to YouTube.
Additionally, users can select a frame as the video’s cover photo, and even customize it with text, stickers, and emoji using the video editor.
The app also now supports saved progress for videos, allowing users to resume playback from where they left off.
These updates come after Telegram removed 15 million groups and channels in 2022, though the company notes that not all removals were piracy-related.
While some channels on Telegram host original content, the platform is also known for hosting pirated videos.
Following 2023 enhancements to its channel discovery features, Telegram is now applying a similar approach to bot discovery.
A “Similar Bots” tab will now appear on bot profiles, suggesting related bots to users.
