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By Samuel Adegoke
A leading social medium and messaging app, Telegram, has launched a free video conference for up to 30 participants, a development that threatens the dominance of paid services rendered by the leading digital conference channel, Zoom.
Telegram announced the added service on Friday to the excitement of users who may see it as a better alternative to Zoom which offers paid service for conferences that have many participants. Zoom also restricts free conferences to only 40 minutes.
In the announcement, Telegram said it would soon increase the number of participants for the free video conferencing but that voice conferencing can accommodate unlimited number of participants. Its group video calls are supported by a wide variety of devices including ipads and laptops.
It also launched animated background for chats.
Telegram is a non-profit social media messaging app.
The announcement
Group Video Calls
• Start video conferences from Voice Chats in any group.
• Share your screen or video from your camera with up to 30 participants (limit to be increased soon).
• Talk without video with an unlimited number of participants.
• Create voice chats from the info page of any group where you are an admin.
• Group video calls are supported natively on all devices, including iPads and laptops.
Animated Backgrounds
• Meet animated backgrounds for chats – first time in a messaging app! These multi-color gradient backgrounds are generated algorithmically and move beautifully every time you send a message.
• Create your own backgrounds in Appearance Settings by selecting unique combinations of colors and applying any of the dozens of patterns.
• Share your animated backgrounds with friends and family to upgrade them to a new level of messaging experience.
• Choose between dozens of new gorgeous animated backgrounds in Appearance Settings > Background.
• Backgrounds are now partially visible through the header and the footer in chats.
Message Sending Animations
• Send messages with improved animations – your input text smoothly transforms into the message bubble as it flies into the chat.
• Stickers and animated emoji you send jump into the chat from the sticker panel.
More app icons
• Change your app icon to one of the new gradient logos in Settings > Appearance.
Login Info Reminders
• Confirm that your phone number is up to date from the new prompt in Settings.
• You will now receive a notification from Telegram each time your 2-Step Verification settings are changed.
More about this update:
https://telegram.org/blog/group-video-calls