Telegram adds content protection support for groups and channels

Image: Dima Solomin

Telegram has added content protection support to enable users to block others from saving or forwarding posts shared in groups and channels.

This makes it possible to ensure that media posted on Telegram will only remain available for the audience you shared it with in the first place.

To enable content protection, Group and Channel owners have to restrict message forwarding in their chat, also blocking screenshotting via Android security policies (screenshots are still likely an option on desktop and iOS clients) and removing the ability to save media from posts.

Disabling message forwarding requires opening the Group or Channel Info page, going to Group / Channel Type, and toggling on the 'Restrict Saving Content' option.

"With this update, we're helping creators protect the content they publish on Telegram and ensure that it is available only for their intended audience," the Telegram Team said.

Today's update also comes with new ways to delete posts by date (to clear chat history for a specific date range), manage connected devices (with toggles for restricting calls or new Secret Chats), and post anonymously (as a channel) in public groups and channel comments.

Some mobile users will also be offered to receive login calls from Telegram starting today instead of SMS codes to confirm their identity by entering several digits of the phone number that called.

This new version also added support for responses to join requests, global chat themes on Android, text recognition on iOS 13 and later, redesigned contact info on iOS, and the ability to format Text in media captions on iOS.

Today's update comes after Telegram launched a new advertising program dubbed Ad Platform for public channels in late October, offering them the opportunity to display sponsored messages as a way to monetize the platform's massive user base.

Right now, Telegram is one of the top 10 most-used apps worldwide, claiming to have more than 500 million active users.

According to Telegram's estimations, its users will generate over 500 billion ad views each month once the Ad Platform advertising platform is adopted.