After WhatsApp's privacy policy debacle last year, its popular competitor Telegram has become one of the most popular messaging apps on the market. As a result, the company is rapidly adding new features to its platform to improve the user experience. Recently, Telegram rolled out an update allowing for scheduled voice chats on the platform. Now, according to a recent preview, it seems that Telegram is planning to add group video calls soon.

The announcement was made by founder and CEO Pavel Durov himself on his Telegram channel. Durov shared a short video introducing the feature as well as key details of the upcoming feature. You can view the video and Durov's message from the link on the Telegram app on your mobile device. The company had originally planned to add the video calling feature to its messaging service sometime in 2020, but the feature never materialised.

According to Durov, Telegram will add a "video dimension" to its voice chat feature in an update in May. This will allow users to start a voice chat session with the camera to participate in a group video call on Telegram. And as the video shared by Durov shows, the user interface looks very neat.

There's a dedicated area at the top of the voice chat window to show a video feed of the person speaking. In the middle, there is a list of active participants with a microphone button next to each of their profiles.

Below this, three control buttons allow you to mute the sound, turn on/off the camera and exit the voice chat session.

Release in May

The feature will support screen sharing, noise cancellation and support for desktops and tablets. In addition, the feature also works in landscape orientation and seems to be pretty well optimised. In addition, Durov says that the group video calling feature will also feature secure encryption and Telegram-level user interface and speed. Thus, Telegram will be on par with all modern video conferencing tools.

As for the availability of the feature, it will be released in an update during May. Telegram has seen significant growth during the pandemic, taking advantage of telecommuting and the general desire to stay connected safely. The company announced that it had reached 400 million monthly active users by April 2020, up from 200 million in 2018. This is partly due to the way its competitor, WhatsApp, has communicated its new privacy policy to its customers, prompting some users to leave the Facebook-owned app for Telegram and Signal.

Although appearing a little less nimble, WhatsApp actually beat Telegram to the punch by offering end-to-end encrypted group video calling. The company added group video and voice calls in 2018.

Source: blog-nouvelles-technologies.fr