Video calls arriving on Telegram to challenge Zoom and Skype
Telegram challenges Zoom and Skype with the functionality for group video calls starting in May
After WhatsApp and Clubhouse, Telegram challenges Zoom and Skype: group video calls are coming in May.
CEO Pavel Durov announced that the messaging platform will be updated shortly with support for this feature. The company had planned to add it in 2020, but the pandemic slowed development work.
The company reached 400 million monthly active users in April 2020, up double the 200 million in 2018. As of January 2021, global numbers point to around 500 million users, many of them coming from WhatsApp, whose recent privacy changes have pushed to switch to more closed tools, as well as Signal, an app used and repeatedly promoted by Edward Snowden.
Meanwhile, Telegram has issued more than $ 1 billion in bonds needed to finance its growth.
All the details.
DUROV: "WE WILL MAKE TELEGRAM A POWERFUL PLATFORM FOR GROUP VIDEO CALLS"
However, end-to-end encrypted individual video calls arrived last August. "We will make Telegram a powerful platform for group video calling – explains Durov – Screen sharing, noise cancellation, desktop and tablet support: everything you can expect from a modern video conferencing tool, but with user interface, speed and end encryption. -to-end safe ".
ATTENTION TO PRIVACY
Obviously, Telegram offers functions that Zoom and others like it can already guarantee. But it is precisely the attention to privacy one of the elements on which Durov focuses most.
LATE ON VIDEOCALLS
Telegram arrives late for video calling functionality (originally expected last year). The announcement of the new feature signals an intent to catch up, and is proof that video calls have become a hub of sociability during a pandemic.
ALREADY “IMITATED” CLUBHOUSE
Also, just last month Telegram introduced a new feature called Voice Chat 2.0 within its Android app. It is the possibility of opening and participating in audio conversations, just like it happens on Clubhouse, the social network of the moment .
The Telegram audio chats, however, differ from the competition for a couple of unique elements: for example, participants can decide to remain "anonymous", choosing to simply be listed among the listeners, without revealing their real name or nickname. In addition, room administrators can record all or part of the audio event, to repost it later.
RECOVER TO SATISFY INVESTORS
There is therefore a certain ferment on the part of Telegram to keep up with its competitors. As TechCrunch noted, the firm founded by the Durov brothers raised $ 1 billion by issuing bonds.
Until now, the Durovs have always said they are not interested in monetizing with their app. But "the ultimate goal for Telegram is to become a financially sustainable project that can serve humanity for decades, or centuries," said the CEO at the latest round of funding.
The new feature therefore gives investors a reason to keep pouring money into Telegram, showing that their money could make the app a worthy rival for Zoom and other big techs.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/videochiamate-in-arrivo-su-telegram-per-sfidare-zoom-e-skype/ on Fri, 30 Apr 2021 13:13:38 +0000.