Advertisement

Your Telegram chats now include disappearing photos

Add a dash of Snapchat to your secure conversations.

Telegram's messaging app is better known for its security than catering to Snapchat fans, but it's blurring those lines. The company has updated its mobile apps with support for disappearing photos and videos in any private chat. All you have to do is set a timer for your media and it'll vanish. If the recipient gets sneaky and takes a screenshot, you'll know right away. In short: much as with services like Snapchat or iMessage, you shouldn't have to worry that a sensitive pic will leak to the public.

The upgrade also brings faster media in some cases. If you're part of a very large channel with 100,000 or more members, Telegram will lean on a distributed content network to speed up your downloads wherever you happen to be. And if you use stickers, you can expand the scrolling area to pick just the right image to make your point. None of these additions will sway you if you're well-entrenched in another social app, but they may give you fewer reasons to switch away.