Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested in France

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As messaging app Telegram faced increased scrutiny for its use by far-right extremists and terrorist groups, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was arrested over the past weekend in France. A warrant for his arrest was issued concerning his messaging app's lack of moderation.

Durov was detained Saturday at Paris's Bourget Airport on charges including allegations that Telegram was complicit in aiding money launderers, drug traffickers, fraudsters, and those spreading child sexual exploitation content. French prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement on Monday that Durov is also accused of refusing to communicate "information or documents" related to the investigation.

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Telegram now lets you share chat folders via link

Aside from introducing custom wallpapers, it's now easier to share chat folders on Telegram. The app lets you invite friends and colleagues to work groups, news channels, and more using a link. With one tap, they can access a chat folder and instantly join all the chats.  

When creating a link, you can select the chats you'd like to include and give them a unique name to match. You can include any public chats or those where you have admin rights to add people. If you add more chats to your folder and update the links, the members will see a suggestion to join the new chats. If you haven't created a folder before, you can open Settings > Chat Folders.

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Telegram now lets you use custom wallpapers

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You can now use your favourite photos or colour combinations as custom wallpapers on your Telegram chats. When you set the wallpaper, a prompt will be sent in the chat that lets your chat partner use the same wallpaper, or they can opt to choose one on their own.

To set a custom wallpaper, tap  > 'Set Wallpaper' in the chat header on Android or open a profile and tap  > 'Change Wallpaper' on iOS.

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Telegram no longer needs SIMs for sign-ups

Telegram previously restricted access to sign-ups to SIM cards and phone numbers. But that just changed. The messaging app is dropping this requirement but adding extra privacy options. For verification, Telegram partnered with Fragment to allow users to create an anonymous number to sign into the app with. This number will be private and exclusive to you, much like a SIM card.

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