Telegram is one of the best messaging platforms out there, offering a lot of features. The messaging platform skyrocketed in users since WhatsApp announced its controversial privacy policies, and it added a number of features and quality of life updates over time to improve the service, and better compete with other top messaging apps. The latest Telegram Beta 8.4 adds spoilers and emoji message reactions to Android users.
Android Police spotted the new features, and it’s important to note the spoiler and message reactions have already been present in the iOS Beta for a while, but it wasn’t available for Android users. Fortunately, it seems that Telegram has finally managed to get it working properly on Android, and it’ll soon be available via the Telegram Beta program.
Source: Android Police
Message reactions will work as you expect. You can long-press on any message, and the thumbs up, thumbs down, heart, fire, party popper, and shock emojis will show up. You can also swipe on this to make additional emojis show up and select from. There will be a total of 11 emojis, and it’s unclear if the user can customize the selection with their own emojis. These can be used on any message, even on your own.
Spoilers will work similarly, and you’ll be able to long-press on your text while writing and highlight the text that you want to mark as a spoiler. You can then select the Spoiler button to make the selection and send it. The new spoiler option will hide the selected text. The hidden text can be revealed by tapping on the text.
If you want to give the new Telegram Beta a try, it’s worth noting that you won’t find it on Google Play Store. Instead, you’ll have to download from the company’s dedicated site that uses the Microsft App Center to distribute and publish different versions of the official Telegram client. If you decide to download it, your existing Telegram (stable) app will stay intact, and you’ll have another Telegram Beta installed as a separate application.