Telegram 8.5 Update Brings Custom Video Stickers, Tweaked Reactions, Improved Navigation, and More

Last Updated on August 23, 2023 by Moulik

Telegram is fighting against some big names such as Whatsapp and Facebook, but it is still undaunted by the major corporations and is taking everything in its stride to stay relevant. The instant messaging service is gaining popularity and improving with each update. Telegram’s latest 8.5 update adds video stickers, new interactive emojis, improved reactions, enhanced recent tabs navigation, some bug fixes, and some stability improvements. 

Telegram 8.5 Update Features

The Telegram 8.5 update brings a video sticker feature that lets you create animated stickers from any video of your choice. However, you will require expertise and advanced software like Adobe Illustrator to create these animated stickers. You can publish your stickers via the @Stickers bot. Telegram says that each sticker is under 30 KB in size. 

Telegram 8.5 also brings enhancements to message reactions. Message reactions were first introduced in Telegram 8.4, but now you can send a bigger reaction by long pressing on the reaction of your choice. The reactions are now synchronised, meaning that the recipient will be able to view the animations without any delays. Reactions will have a read status, just like other messages, which will be helpful in polls, approvals, answers etc.  You will be notified of replies or mentions via a new ♡ button when your messages have unseen reactions. The update has also added five new reactions: 🥰, 🤯, 🤔, 🤬, and 👏. These emojis will have a synchronised animation effect with the recipient. Alternatively, the recipient can tap on it to view the animation. 

Telegram is working towards making its UI more user-friendly. You can now press and hold the back button to reveal your navigation history. This will help you to jump between chats more efficiently.  

That’s not all,  Telegram says that its developers have burned the midnight oil for two weeks to fix bugs. It has also worked on improving the call quality. The messaging service has introduced many bug fixes and improvements with this update. Telegram has added support for translation to Instant View pages, included an option to send silent messages from the sharing menu, and much more. 

This update is available for all iOS users. Android users can visit the Play Store to download or update the app. You can also visit Telegram’s website to download the app.