Telegram is one of the most feature-packed instant messaging apps out there. Since its inception, Telegram’s funding has largely come out of the pocket of Pavel Durov, the founder of the service. But as the service continues to amass new users and climbs new heights of success, the start-up is now looking for ways to monetise the platform. Last year, Telegram started testing Sponsored Messages (read advertisements) in public channels with more than 1000 subscribers. Now the company appears to be readying another monetisation tool that may soon ask users to pay to unlock additional features.

At the time being, Telegram Premium is exclusive to the iOS app, but it will likely expand to Android too once the wider rollout ensues. Android Police notes that premium stickers won’t be visible to free users in conversations. Instead, they will see a banner telling them to “unlock additional reactions by subscribing to Telegram Premium.”

I just think that making the features actually visible to free users would firstly be better for the Premium users actually using them (they get to show it off), and also it helps spread the message about what the features would be like to use to help encourage free users to go Premium. I don't see the point of paying for Premium if all my family just see blank stickers. But let's first see how it actually works in practice I suppose.

See https://www.xda-developers.com/telegram-premium-beta-ios/

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