Telegram adds voice-to-text for video messages, but you'll have to pay for it

Telegram announced a new update that brings a couple of new features for Premium users and some visual changes available to everyone. The most important change included in the update is that addition of voice-to-text for video messages, which is now available for Telegram Premium users.

Previously, subscribers have been able to convert any voice message to text, but the latest update adds the same functionality to video messages. If you’re paying for Premium, you’ll now be allowed to get an instant text transcript of a video message.

Apart from that, Telegram introduced Topics in Groups, a new feature that allows groups with over 200 members to enable topics and create separate spaces for any subject. The new feature works as individual chats within the group and support their own shared media and notification settings.

Another interesting new functionality included in the update, collectible username, is meant to make it easy for others to contact Telegram users or find their public groups in channels. Besides one basic username, Telegram users can now assign multiple collectible usernames to each of their accounts and public chats. These can be less than 5 characters long and can be traded via blockchain.

Once again, Telegram is showing emoji fans a lot of love. The latest update adds 12 new emoji packs available for Premium users, some made specifically for Halloween.

Telegram users on iOS will be getting a redesigned Night Mode. Dark themes have been updated to make colors more balanced with better blurring effects as users scroll in chats and the chat list.

As far as Android users go, the update introduces new options to resize text. If you want to increase the size of chat text, including link previews, reply headers and more, you’ll find the new functionality in Chat Settings.

Finally, some minor design improvements have been implemented too. For example, a new animation has been added when swiping left to reply. Also, tapping a user’s phone number in their profile page will now open a new menu with several call options.