Telegram 'Premium' Subscription is Showing Up in Beta Builds of the App

Telegram appears to be testing another way for the super popular messaging app to start bringing in revenue. From a report: Beta testers for Telegram's iOS app noticed something new in version 8.7.2, as first spotted by Android Police: a new set of stickers and reaction emoji that you can only unlock "by subscribing to Telegram Premium." Telegram Premium, of course, doesn't exist yet. But right now, users with access to Telegram's TestFlight builds and its Test Server are able to send each other exploding-heart and flying-ghost reactions, a sticker in which that cute blobby yellow duck is just unbearably sad, and a few other new things. And it appears that, ultimately, even the recipients of those messages will need Telegram Premium to see them; if you send a non-subscriber a sad duck, they'll get a prompt to sign up.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean "uncensored and I can't bear to think about people talking privately without being snooped on"

Re:

[SlashDotCanSuckMy777]

And now can't see sad ducks unless you subscribe.

Same old, same old

[devslash0]

It's the same story again. Someone builds something useful. Then they go public and as soon as investors get on board it all goes to crap because money is all that starts to matter from then on.

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[slazzy]

Yup, and word on the street is the encrypted has been degraded too. Don't be surprised when everyone jumps ship telegram...

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[dbialac]

Nah, it's the "new is better" cycle. There's also the whole thing about product maturity. For example, a new IM comes out, people use it, and then it reaches product maturity. Then the project managers and developers need to justify their jobs, at which point they start adding new and unnecessary features. Then a new one comes out because the former one because a bloated POS. See also AIM, ICQ, Yahoo messenger, Skype, Slack, Teams, etc. In this case, though, I welcome the new emoji format and hope it expand

Everybody needs money

[Virtucon]

To buy used Russian Yachts. This just gets them to their goal quicker.

Slashdot+ Required

[dark.nebulae]

A Slashdot+ subscriber has submitted a comment viewable only to Slashdot+ subscribers.

Sign up by clicking here [goatse.cx] for the amazing low price of $5.99/month...

Is it just me?

[ukoda]

Charging a premium to send 'special' stickers, meh. Charging to receive them? That seems like a dick move to me.

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[A10Mechanic]

Check article: I believe it was a duck, not a dick.

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[ukoda]

Yea, to be honest I could give a duck...

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[dbialac]

Just make sure all of your fucks are in a row.

The jokes become real

[Sowelu]

There's been a sticker pack for years with one bait sticker that claims to need "Telegram Gold" to view, and the rest are just a rickroll mural.

Oh well. If there's no income stream, there's no service.

Sign up to receive?

[fahrbot-bot]

And it appears that, ultimately, even the recipients of those messages will need Telegram Premium to see them; if you send a non-subscriber a sad duck, they'll get a prompt to sign up.

Ya, let's make the app a monetarily tiered/class/caste -based system; that'll work. /sarcasm

There's already enough non-interoperability between different secure messaging systems, no one needs less interoperability within the *same* messaging system. If this sticks, hopefully, this "premium" service will at least have some sort of toggle to allow things to be sent/received to/from "regular" users.