Telegram, the platform connecting close to a billion monthly users, just rolled out a significant update on May 2nd, 2025. This release packs a punch, boosting security, adding serious muscle for businesses, expanding fun gifting features, and making the app simply faster to use. It’s clear Telegram aims to cover all bases, from spontaneous secure chats to professional automation.
Your Group Calls Just Got a Serious Security Boost
Remember how clunky trying to get a secure group call going could be? Telegram tackles this head-on. Building on its existing video chat and live stream features, the platform now offers extra-secure, instant group calls. You don’t even need to start a group chat first, making impromptu meetups incredibly easy.
Here’s what you can do:
- Gather up to 200 people on a single call.
- Share your audio, video, or even your screen.
- Invite anyone quickly with a simple link or QR code.
- Instantly check your call’s security by comparing matching emojis displayed for you and other participants – a visual confirmation of end-to-end encryption.
- Telegram built the security for these calls using what they describe as blockchain-inspired distributed technology. This setup means Telegram itself cannot secretly listen in or monitor your conversation. They even encourage security researchers to dive into their open-source documentation and encryption protocols to verify this claim.
Starting a group call is straightforward with several options:
- If you’re already on a call, just tap ‘Add Person’.
- Head to the Calls Tab, select ‘New Call’, and pick the contacts you want to include.
- Generate call links or QR codes directly from the Calls Tab for sharing anywhere.
- This flexibility means whether you’re jumping on a quick chat or setting up a planned meeting, Telegram has you covered, no matter your device.
Telegram Business Gets Automated Superpowers
For Premium Telegram Business users, managing interactions just got a whole lot easier. The update allows you to integrate third-party bots, including smart AI-driven ones, to handle customer conversations automatically.
Telegram added over ten new controls specifically for businesses. These let you fine-tune how bots manage different aspects of your account, including:
- Reading and sending messages.
- Updating profile photos.
- Posting Stories.
- Editing or deleting messages.
You manage these bot permissions with simple toggles. This ensures businesses keep tight control over their presence while letting automation handle the heavy lifting of day-to-day tasks.
Give and Manage Gifts with More Style and Control
Telegram users love sending gifts, exchanging over 10 million every month. The platform now gives you more ways to customize this experience.
New options let you:
- Add a dedicated ‘Gift’ button right in your chats for easy sending.
- Control exactly which gifts show up on your public profile.
- Choose who can send you gifts and even limit the types you receive.
Popular accounts can now filter incoming gifts, potentially limiting them to ‘Unique’ or ‘Limited-Edition’ items. This helps keep inboxes organized and makes special gifts stand out. Plus, you can pin gifts to the top of your gift list, wear them as status symbols, or even transfer them to other users or external blockchain wallets.
Managing your gift collection is simple. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Gifts, or check out the Gifts Tab on your profile. From there, you can hide or show gifts, pin them, set them as status symbols, or initiate transfers. To send a gift, just open someone’s profile and tap ‘Send Gift’.
Fairer Appeals for Account Restrictions
Dealing with account restrictions felt frustrating at times. Telegram refined its system to add a layer of fairness and transparency.
Now, if your account gets flagged and banned for suspicious activity, it enters a ‘frozen’ state instead of being immediately inaccessible. This gives you the chance to submit an appeal directly within the app. If Telegram reviews your case and finds the restriction was an error, they lift all limitations. This new process balances protecting the community from scammers and spammers with giving users a clear path to appeal decisions.
Get Things Done Faster with New Gestures
Saving seconds adds up throughout the day. Telegram introduced intuitive new gestures to speed up common actions:
- On both iOS and Android, you can now hold and drag the share arrow next to a message to forward it in one smooth motion.
- For iOS users, swiping right on the story list or the main chat list instantly opens the Story Editor, making it quicker to create and share your moments.
These gestures make navigating the app and creating content feel more fluid and responsive.
This latest update clearly focuses on giving users more power and control, whether it’s securing their conversations, automating business tasks, managing their digital gifts, or simply moving faster through the app.
