Telegram Challenges Meta With the Launch of New 'Business' Features, Revenue-Sharing

Telegram is enhancing its platform for businesses with the introduction of Telegram Business, offering specialized features like customizable start pages, business hours, and chat management tools, while also initiating an ad-revenue sharing model for public channels with at least 1,000 subscribers. "As a whole, the features could introduce competition into a market where Meta's apps like Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp have a hold on business communication," reports TechCrunch. From the report: The features arrived just a couple of weeks after Telegram founder Pavel Durov told the Financial Times in an interview that he expected the app, which now has over 900 million users, to become profitable by 2025. Telegram Business is clearly part of that push, leading up to a future IPO, as it's an offering that requires users to subscribe to the paid Premium version to access. Telegram Premium is a bundle of upgraded features that cost $4.99 per month on iOS and Android and is also available as a three-month, six-month or one-year plan.

Telegram Business will likely give Premium another bump as it offers tools and features that can be used by business customers without needing to know how to code. For instance, businesses can choose to display their hours of operation and location on a map, and greet customers with a customized start page for empty chats where they can choose the text and sticker users see before beginning a conversation. Similar to features available on WhatsApp, Telegram Business will offer "quick replies," which are shortcuts to preset messages that support formatting, links, media, stickers and files.

Businesses can also set their own custom greeting messages for customers who engage with the company for the first time, and they can specify a period after which the greeting would be shown again. They can manage their availability using away messages while the business is closed or the owner is on vacation. Plus, the businesses can categorize their chats using colored labels based on what chat folders they're in, like delivery, claim, orders, VIP, feedback, or any others that make sense for them. In addition, businesses can create links to chat that will instantly open a Telegram chat with a request to take an action like tracking an order or reserving a table, among other things. Business customers can also add Telegram bots, including those from other tools or AI assistants, to answer messages on their behalf. The company said more features will roll out to Telegram Business in future updates.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Simple:
a) Most people don't know
b) Those who do know don't care.
c) That one person who both knows and cares isn't even strong enough in his conviction to declare that fact without posting as an anonymous coward.

You are "c", I suspect you use the same username on Slashdot as you do on Telegram. After all there's no other reason to post your comment AC.

Telegram still can't be trusted.

[upuv]

Because of the central server model and the reliance on users to verify shared keys fingerprints manually there is an opening for a man in the middle attack.

Telegram could very well be very strong. But it also has a gapping hole that could be exploited.

Re:

[Baloo Uriza]

And they're determined to refuse an audit as well. Plus the UI is that same ridiculous garbage Discord came up with.

Meanwhile, Signal is free, open source and

[nothinginparticular]

doesn't snoop, and you can create your own server if you don't trust the official one.