WhatsApp rival, Telegram, has launched Video calls as part of the activities marking seven years of operation.
Brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov started Telegram in 2013 and has since grown into a platform with over 400 million users. In October 2013, Telegram had 100,000 daily active users. On 24 March 2014, Telegram announced that it had reached 35 million monthly users and 15 million daily active users. It hit the 100 million mark in 2016.
The Video call feature is coming at an auspicious time as 2020 highlighted the need for face-to-face communication due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the company in a blogpost, “You can start a video call from your contact’s profile page, and switch video on or off at any time during voice calls. Like all other video content on Telegram, video calls support picture-in-picture mode, allowing you to scroll through chats and multitask while maintaining eye contact.”
All video calls are protected with end-to-end encryption. To confirm your connection, compare the four emoji shown on-screen for you and your chat partner – if they match, your call is 100% secured by time-tested encryption also used in Telegram’s Secret Chats and Voice Calls. It is currently available in alpha mode on its Android as well as the iOS versions of the app.
Telegram’s video feature is coming about four years behind its rival WhatsApp who launched the same feature in 2016.
Telegram says it will soon be launching group video calls in the coming months. Whatsapp already offers group video calls for eight people
