Telegram Is Now Letting You Create Your Own Notification Tones

Here’s the thing, Telegram may be overshadowed by WhatsApp when it comes to popularity but this messaging service is far richer in terms of features, so much so that it’s fair to say no competitor even comes close.

What’s more impressive is the rate at which the app receives new features. The team behind Telegram likes to send out major updates on a nearly monthly basis.

Just last month for example, the platform added a whole new Download manager to help users better control their downloads, swiftly share files of any type (up to 2GB in size), among other things.

Custom Notification Sounds

With that being said, the time has come for yet another update alongside an ever-growing list of new features as Telegram through a blog statement, has announced its now letting users set any sound as their notification tone.

You can use short audio files uploaded from your phone and save voice messages as notifications from a chat.

So now, when you receive a short audio clip, say a meme sound or a funny sound effect on Telegram, you can long-press on it to see a new “Save For Notifications” option.

Here’s how you can set any sound as a custom notification on your phone;

On iPhone:

1. Open a chat.
2. Tap the image of the person/group in the top right corner of your screen.
3. Tap Mute beneath the image thumbnail.
4. Now select Customize from the list.
5. Under Telegram Tones, choose any sound already added to the list.
6. If you wish to add a new one, select Upload Sound and find the sound you want in your iPhone files.

On Android:

1. Open a chat.
2. Tap the profile image in the top left corner of the screen.
3. Select Notifications.
4. Select Customize from the pop-up menu.
5. Then select Sound.
6. Now choose from the Telegram Tones if you’ve already added some.
7. Or…tap Upload Sound to add a new one.

NOTE: For now, this feature supports only audio files and voice messages under 5 seconds of up to 300kB (kilobytes) in size.

The tones are cross-platform (available on both Android and iOS) and free of charge so everyone can enjoy them.

Multiple custom alerts can be created and assigned to individual chats or entire groups of chats, and Telegram has set up its own Notification Sounds Channel with some samples to get users started with.

I’m sure your brain is already cooking up the obnoxious sounds you can find on the internet to use, so go ahead and enjoy yourself but not too much though.

Custom Mute Durations

Aside from custom notification tunes, Telegram has also introduced a much improved “custom mute durations” feature.

For years, users could only take a break from notifications for like an hour, 2 hours or a maximum 2 days, the new update however gives you many more options.

You can now pause notifications for a specific duration say, when you’re taking a 40 minute drive, a midday nap or even for much longer like 2 months if you’re on a lengthy summer vacation.

These can be set through a new streamlined menu that can be accessed through a three-dot menu within any chat.

Simply choose Disable Sound to receive notifications silently, or one of the Mute options to turn off notifications completely.

On Android, tap Notifications on a chat’s info page or  > Mute in the chat header. On iOS, tap Mute on a chat’s info page.

A new Auto-Delete Menu In Telegram Profiles

You can also access a new Auto-Delete feature directly from your profile which automatically makes messages in a chat disappear at a specific time of your choosing.

According to the social media platform, the Auto Delete timer has flexible timer settings ranging from one day to a year.

Once you set an auto-delete time for a chat, its content, including messages, images, videos and documents are automatically deleted after the timer expires.

Other new additions and improvements on Telegram

• Improved Picture-in-Picture on Android – This update adds improvements to the player window that is in the “Picture-in-Picture” mode on Android. It allows you to use pinching gestures to change the size of the player window. You can also tap the “X” button if you wish to close the screen.
• Improved message translation on iOS – This in-app translation feature for iOS devices has been expanded to support high quality translations from a wider range of languages similar to the Android version of Telegram.
• New Animations – The user interface for changing your phone number in the “Settings” menu has a new look, with animated ducks to walk you through the process. Its basically a way of creating a fun, exciting user experience whenever you interact with the app.
• More Animated Emoji – This feature comes with a new batch of food animated emojis. If you’ve been longing to include a hopping bag of popcorn or a delicious stack of pancakes with your messages, then this update has you all sorted out.
• Replies in forwarded messages – Another minor yet notable change is that, when you forward a message, which is a reply to a previous message in a chat or group, a preview of the initial message is displayed along with the current one for better context.

All these new features and improvements are available on Telegram Version 8.7.0 which is currently rolling out on the App store for iPhone and iPad and, on Play Store for Android-powered devices meaning most of us probably have them by now.