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Telegram auto-delete message, expiring invites, and more

elegram is updating its messaging app with options for auto-deleting messages, expiring invite links, and new unlimited groups, the company shared in a blog post. Much like Signal, Telegram received a burst of new users in the confusion over WhatsApp’s privacy policy and now the company is adopting features that were already part of its competitors’ apps, features which offer more security and privacy. Auto-deleting messages were already possible in Telegram’s encrypted Secret Chats, but this new update for iOS and Android adds the option to make messages disappear in any kind of chat. Auto-delete can be enabled inside of chats, and set to delete either 24 hours or seven days after messages are sent. Auto-delete won’t remove every message though; if a message was sent before the feature was turned on, it’ll stick around. Telegram’s competitors have had similar features: WhatsApp introduced a feature in 2020 and Signal has had disappearing messages since at least 2016.

Telegram announces Anonymous Admins

The cloud-based messaging platform is also adding Anonymous Group Admins feature. As per Telegram, this feature is being introduced for safer protests. As per the Telegram blog post, users can “Toggle Remain Anonymous in Admin rights to enable Batman mode. The anonymized admin will be hidden in the list of group members, and their messages in the chat will be signed with the group name, similar to channel posts.”