TELEGRAM Reaches 700 Million Users, Simultaneously Launches Premium Features

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Telegram has recorded more than 700 million monthly active users, a rapid increase from 500 million users in 2021. The news comes with the launch of the Telegram Premium program.

On June 19, 2022, the communications service giant also finally released the premium level for users with additional features. The monthly subscription is priced in the range of USD 5 to USD 6. The price depends on the region of the country.

The premium tier contains various additional features and improvements to the messaging app. According to the company, Telegram Premium can be used to send files as large as 4GB (up from 2GB) and supports faster downloads.

Telegram Premium Advantages and Benefits

Paying subscribers can also follow up to 1,000 channels, up from 500 as offered to free users. Premium users can also create up to 20 chat folders with as many as 200 chats each.

Telegram Premium users can even add up to four accounts in the app and pin up to 10 chats.

Premium users will also have the ability to convert voice messages to text, gain access to exclusive stickers and reactions and use animated images as their profile picture. Paying customers can also avoid ads, so they don't see ads in the app.

Telegram founder and chief executive Pavel Durov has pledged to keep some of the core features in the app free for free users and also continue to build new features for non-paying audiences.

The move is an attempt by the Dubai-based company to keep its development primarily driven by its users, not advertisers. This is also the first time an instant messaging app with hundreds of millions of users has launched a premium tier.

Signal, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Apple's Messages and Google's Messages, some of Telegram's main competitors, do not offer a premium level.

Durov said earlier this month that the move to roll out the premium tier was meant to respond to user requests for additional storage/bandwidth.

"After giving it some thought, we realized that the only way to get our fans who wanted the update the most, while keeping existing features free, was to make the raised limits a paid option," he said.

In India, the premium version is priced at USD 6 for iPhone users. Alex Barredo, a technology commentator based in Spain, reports seeing a price of EUR 5.49 as a monthly fee.