Telegram Brings Emoji Reactions, Translation Before WhatsApp

Last Updated on January 3, 2022 by Anu Joy

Telegram pushed out a major update on the eve of the new year. The new update brings emoji reactions, in-app translation, message reactions, new QR code features, and more. The company has been on an update spree lately, adding features to its instant messaging service to lure users away from its rivals such as WhatsApp, Signal, Facebook Messenger etc.

Telegram Updated Features

Telegram gains a useful feature to hide some parts of your text message. Say, for instance, you are discussing something about a movie or a TV show, you can hide spoilers in it. The text would read something (spoiler) like this. If someone wishes to view the spoiler, they can simply tap on it to view it.

Telegram gets iMessage-inspired reactions with this update. Tapping once on any message will allow you to send different types of emojis. Double tapping will send a default thumbs-up reaction to the message. You can change the default double-tap emoji under the ‘Chat Settings’ on an Android device, and in the ‘Stickers and Emoji’ settings in iOS. Reactions will be enabled by default in private chats. Channel or group admins can switch them on or off, and also control the selection of reactions available for other members.

Telegram now provides a translation option as an added convenience feature. You can enable the translation feature by navigating to the Language section in Settings. This will add a Translate button to the context menu. The Translate button won’t bother you if you receive texts in your selected language options. It will only appear when a text in an unknown language is received. The new translation feature will be available on all Android devices. iPhone and iPad devices running on iOS 15 and later can enjoy the new Telegram feature.

Telegram users can now generate QR codes. This will be available with a public username, bots, groups and even channels. Simply tap the QR code icon next to their username to share it easily. You can access your personal QR code in the Settings menu. That’s not all, the company has overhauled the context menus on macOS. It now gets shortcut hints and animated icons.