Group video calls will be coming to Telegram\u2019s messaging platform next month with what\u2019s being touted as a fully featured implementation, including support for web-based videoconferencing.<\/p>\n
Founder Pavel Durov made the announcement via a (text) message posted to his official Telegram channel today where he wrote \u201cwe will be adding a video dimension to our voice chats in May, making Telegram a powerful platform for group video calls\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cScreen sharing, encryption, noise-cancelling, desktop and tablet support \u2014 everything you can expect from a modern video conferencing tool, but with Telegram-level UI, speed and encryption. Stay tuned!\u201d he added, using the sorts of phrases you\u2019d expect from an enterprise software maker.<\/p>\n
\nWill Zoom Apps be the next hot startup platform?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
Telegram often taunts rivals over their tardiness to add new features but on video calls it has been a laggard, only adding the ability to make one-on-one video calls last August<\/a> \u2014 rather than prioritizing a launch of group video calls, as it had suggested it would a few months earlier.<\/p>\n
In an April 2020 blog post<\/a>, to mark passing 400M users<\/a>, it wrote that the global lockdown had \u201chighlighted the need for a trusted video communication tool\u201d \u2014 going on to dub video calls in 2020 \u201cmuch like messaging in 2013\u201d.<\/p>\n
However it also emphasized the importance of security for group video calling \u2014 and that\u2019s perhaps what\u2019s caused the delay.<\/p>\n
(Another possibility is the operational distraction of needing to raise a large chunk of debt financing to keep funding development: Last month<\/a> Telegram announced it had raised over $1BN by selling bonds \u2014 its earlier plan to monetize via a blockchain platform having hit the buffers in 2020<\/a>.)<\/p>\n
In the event, rather than rolling out group video calls towards the latter end of 2020 it\u2019s going to be doing so almost half way through 2021 \u2014 which has left\u00a0videoconferencing platforms like Zoom to keep cleaning up during the pandemic-fuelled remote work and play boom (even as \u2018Zoom fatigue\u2019 has been added to our lexicon).<\/p>\n
How secure Telegram\u2019s implementation of group video calls will be, though, is an open question.<\/p>\n
Durov\u2019s post mades repeat mention of \u201cencryption\u201d \u2014 perhaps to make a subtle dig at Zoom\u2019s own messy security claims history<\/a> \u2014 but doesn\u2019t specify whether it will use end-to-end encryption (we\u2019ve asked).<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Zoom does now offer e2e<\/a> \u2014 and also has designs on becoming a platform in its own right<\/a>, with apps and a marketplace, so there are a number of shifts in the comms landscape that could see the videoconferencing giant making deeper incursions into Telegram\u2019s social messaging territory.<\/p>\n
The one-to-one video calls Telegram launched last year were rolled out with its own e2e encryption<\/a> \u2014 so presumably it will be replicating that approach for group calls.<\/p>\n
However the MTProto encryption Telegram uses is custom-designed \u2014 and there\u2019s been plenty of debate<\/a> among cryptography experts over the soundness of its approach. So even if group calls are e2e encrypted there will be scrutiny over exactly how Telegram is doing it.<\/p>\n
Also today, Durov touted two recently launched web versions of Telegram (not the first such versions by a long chalk, though) \u2014 adding that it\u2019s currently testing \u201ca functional version of web-based video calls internally, which will be added soon\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the Webk and Webz versions of the web app are \u201cby far the most cross-platform versions of Telegram we shipped so far\u201d, and noting that no downloads or installs are required to access your chats via the browser.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is particularly good for corporate environments where installing native apps is now always allowed, but also good for users who like the instant nature of web sites,\u201d he added, with another little nod toward enterprise users.<\/p>\n
\nTelegram, nearing 500 million users, to begin monetizing the app<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
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