Telegram 3.15 update has just landed, and it allows users to keep track of important conversations, as well as IFTTT integration with over 360 services.
The pinned chat feature allows users to select up to five important conversations, and have them appear in a predictable order on top of the chat window. This means that the spammy group with hundreds of members will not hide the one important message from your mom or your boss. One of the reasons Telegram integrated pinned chats is to allow professional teams to keep track of work related conversations. Apart from five regular chats, five secret chats can be pinned to the top as well.
If this then that (IFTTT) allows users to connect one service to another, opening up a wide range of functionalities. There is now an IFTTT bot for Telegram, that can be summoned to integrate conversational commands to over 360 services. Telegram is one of the few services that allows for two way integration, so you can pull in updates, as well as push out commands. The IFTTT bot can be invoked in a group conversation as well.
Twitter, Instagram, Gmail, Spotify, DropBox and Google Drive are some of the applets available for use through Telegram. Home automation capabilities are also included with support for Hue bulbs by Phillips, and devices by LIFX or Nest. Telegram can notify you whenever you are mentioned on Twitter, or an important email lands in your inbox. You can automatically send an image to a group every time you post on Instagram. Tracks from your Spotify playlist can be shared in groups or individual chats. You can set up your Telegram channel to automatically tweet out new posts.
Following allegations by Android users that Telegram favors iOS, Telegram added a slew of Android oriented features and performance optimisations in the 3.14 update. For the 3.15 update, there are more features meant just for Android users. Photos can now be edited to rotate to any number of degrees, allowing users to straighten their images before sharing on the Telegram app.
A picture-in-picture mode for Vimeo and YouTube videos allows users to continue chatting even when watching a video. The control for the picture in picture mode is available in the newer, sleeker integrated video player. While Telegram does not allow users to forward messages from secret chats, it is now possible to forward content and chat from other conversations into secret chats.
At least one more update is expected to land before the end of the year.