5 things to know about the voice chat feature on Telegram

Something that Telegram wants to call a reinvention of the public radio for the 21st century, the messaging platform has added a voice chat feature to their repertoire. Telegram users can conduct live voice chat sessions on Channels with unlimited participants.

To be honest, this is not entirely new for Telegram. This voice chat feature existed earlier for Telegram Groups and was launched in December last year. It has nor been extended to individual users.

And if you think this feature reeks of Clubhouse, it does. But nonetheless, before you dive in to use this new feature, here are five things you should know about it:

1. Remain private

If you are a public figure you do not need to use your personal account on Telegram for these voice chats. You can conduct the voice chats as a channel and thereby maintain your privacy. This channel you create can be promoted as well.

2. Missed a session? No worries!

You can record these voice chats. Admins are allowed to record the live sessions and the audio file gets saved in the “Saved Messages” window once the session is over. This recording can be shared with people who missed the live session. If a session is being recorded, everyone on the session will be able to see the red light next to the title of the voice chat.

3. I have a question

Raise your hand to alert the admin that you want to speak. Clubhouse has a similar feature as does Twitter Spaces. The main idea behind this is to cut out the clutter of multiple unwanted conversations. Admins will be able to see a person’s credentials, there is a bio where subject expertise can be mentioned, so it's easy for them to decide if the person in question should be allowed to speak or not.

4. Linking in

You can create separate links for speakers and listeners on a voice chat session so as the lists are easier to handle for the admins. These links can be shared on other groups so as more people can join.

5. No limits

There is no limit to how many people can join the session, just like it is on Clubhouse. This makes for a good way to ensure that there’s ample reach and it also helps in building a community of sorts on the platform for like-minded people who would be interested in attending similar voice chat sessions.