Telegram X: Progress through Competition

UPD: As of October 2018, Telegram X for iOS has replaced the older Objective-C based client. If you're looking for the best iOS experience, switch to the main Telegram app.

Our mission is to make Telegram faster, slicker and easier to use with each passing month. Competition is the soul of progress, so at first we got plenty of inspiration from other messengers that spurred us on. But as years passed, we saw less and less innovation coming from competitors, who now seem content merely to adapt Telegram features to their platforms with an average lag of two years.

In this environment, we started relying on internal competition to feed our flames. This is why for the last two years we've been developing a new generation of Telegram clients in parallel with the main versions.

The Telegram X project features apps written from scratch, with an entirely new code base and without all the legacy components that our older apps have accumulated through the years.

Telegram X

The goal of Telegram X is to reinvent Telegram and explore new frontiers in speed, ease of use, quality of animations and all other aspects. Today we are glad to present two new official apps – Telegram X for Android and iOS.

Both these apps are experimental and may or may not eventually replace the existing official apps. But even if they don't, they will speed up the development of Telegram by allowing us to quickly test new approaches and technologies.

X for Android

Telegram X for Android was born in the furnaces of a contest for Android developers that our founder launched two years ago. The winner then used the power of TDLib to create a stunning app with a special focus on smooth animations.

X for Android is faster and more battery-efficient than the original app and features a sleek new design:

Telegram X also supports a clean bubble-free mode for chats, where messages and photos get more breathing space – and photos in channels assume the full width of the screen:

Bubble-free Photo in a Channel

In Telegram X, you can tap and hold on any chat to preview its content without opening. This works everywhere, including in the forwarding and sharing menus, as well as in the Calls tab and ‘Groups in Common’.

The app also offers an abundance of useful swiping actions. For example, you can switch between ‘Chats’ and ‘Calls’ by swiping left and right on the main screen. You can also swipe right on any message to instantly open the forwarding menu:

Swipe right to share

The app includes a reimagined music player and attachment menu, as well as optimized profile pages with quick access to shared media. You can easily switch between different types of shared media by swiping.

New profile page with shared media

This is by no means an exhaustive list of features, Telegram X for Android is full of little surprises in every corner.

The app is now ready to begin its experimental journey with new features scheduled to appear as early as next week.

X for iOS

UPD: As of October 2018, Telegram X for iOS has replaced the older Objective-C based client. If you're looking for the best iOS experience, switch to the main Telegram app.

Telegram X for iOS is written entirely in Swift and is significantly lighter, faster and more battery-efficient than the original app, built with Objective C.

The design and feature set are closer to what iOS users have learned to expect from Telegram, but you will definitely notice the smooth animations and faster speed and loading times on most iPhones.

The internal structure of Telegram X for iOS is also much better optimized for the things that are expected of a Telegram app in 2018 and beyond. Just as with X for Android, today's X release for iOS is the beginning of a long journey.

Look out for our next updates, both to the experimental versions and their classic counterparts.

January 31, 2018,
The Telegram Team

P.S. Today, we're also releasing TDLib – a tool for building custom Telegram apps. Check out the announcement here »