Telegram for Android and iOS Got a 12.8 Feature Upgrade

The June update resurrected the smartwatch apps and added even richer text formatting for bots.

• Telegram for Smartwatches: After many years, the messenger brought its smartwatch apps back for both Apple Watch and Android Wear OS (we fellow Pebble users sob in the corner).

The watch apps support basic features like sending text and voice messages, and viewing media attachments and video messages.

• Dozens of New Rich Text Options: This update allows Telegram bots to send more structured Markdown messages. The supported formats include all sorts of heading options, tables, blocks and spoilers, LaTeX math formulas, to-do checkbox lists, and any attachments in the middle of message text, including collages and carousel slideshows.

You can explore the new formatting in the interactive demo available at @RichTextDemoBot.

According to Pavel Durov's post on Twitter, rich formatting for regular users is planned for later this month, as the team needs to "test everything on bots first".

• Quick Browser Picker: You can now choose to open an external link in Telegram's built-in browser or vice versa, no matter what your settings are, by holding the link down.

You can now also specify site exceptions to your current settings, so if you have the built-in browser off, you can select which websites will always open in it, or, if you still have it enabled, you can choose which links will always open in the default browser app.

• Bots Can Captcha Users Before They Even Join the Chat: Admins can now assign Guardian Bots that will process join requests. When a user attempts to join such a chat, a Web App is launched instantly, where verification takes place. For example, it could be a quiz, a Cloudflare Turnstile checkbox, or a form to write an essay the chat owner has due tomorrow.

Other updates:
• Android got an app bar design refresh to more closely match the iOS app design (just in time for when Apple reverted a lot of the top floating panels nonsense in iOS 27).
• Poll options can now include links.
• The built-in Telegram browser now supports previewing .md pages

Article: https://telegram.org/blog/watch-apps-and-more/

Download the update
• Android: Google Play, APK from the official website or verified channel.
• iOS: App Store.

#update #Android #iOS