What to expect from Telegram's Premium subscription service

Telegram's Premium subscription service is launching, offering users extra features they can enjoy on the messaging app. Some of its biggest draws include faster downloads and double the maximum file upload size to 4GB (instead of 2GB). The company hasn't mentioned pricing yet on the blog post detailing the features, but sites like The Verge reported US$4.99 (~CA$6.50) and TechCrunch says between $5 (~CA$6.50) and $6 (~CA$8).

Premium subscribers also get double the limits imposed on non-paying users. You can join up to 1,000 channels instead of 500. You can create 20 chat folders with 200 chats each, save up to 10 stickers, pin up to 10 chats, and add four accounts to Telegram instead of three. You can also have longer bios with a link.

There will be Premium stickers with full-screen animations, animated profile pictures, and exclusive emoji reactions. You get text conversion for voice messages if you don't have headphones with you and the option to change your default chat folder. And there will be no more sponsored messages on public channels.

What's excellent about Telegram's Premium service is it builds on features already available to standard users. It doesn't put features behind a paywall. Instead, you're just given more of it. This might change down the line, but we hope it doesn't.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov says the free features will remain free, and the new options won't impact non-subscribers. So, these users can download the larger files uploaded and see premium reactions and emojis used by others. Durov also promised that the app won't stop developing features for its free users.