Telegram Messenger updated with fresh design tweaks, interactive notifications on Windows Phone

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
last updated

A fresh update is rolling out to Telegram Messenger for Windows Phone, bringing along a slight, more modern design refresh and other tweaks. Not exactly a radical overhaul, the app still features a main pivot menu split between Chats and Contacts. However, the look and feel is more akin to a Windows 10 Mobile app, with a cleaner feel and smaller UI elements. The settings page has received the same treatment, making the overall experience feel a bit more modern.

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Aside from the design tweaks, the update also manages to pack in another major feature: interactive notifications. Now, when you receive a message you can respond to it right from the notification. There are also options muting and disabling in the notification windows as well.

It's worth noting that Telegram Messenger is still very much a Windows Phone 8.1 app despite its new design flourishes. That said, Telegram CEO Paul Durov noted early last year that the company had plans for a universal Windows 10 app. Given the amount of time that has elapsed since that statement without any updates, however, it's unclear if something is still in the works on that front.

In any case, if you want to check out all of what's new with Telegram, you can grab version 2.0 of the app from the Windows Store now.

Thanks to Rahsna and Thamarai for the tips!

Download Telegram Messenger from the Windows Store (opens in new tab)

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

21 Comments
  • Looks good. May actually try it now.
  • So if they can implement interactive notifications on win8 app. Then WhatsApp should also doing it.
  • I thought interactive notifications specifically required a windows 10 app.
  • smoke and mirror I guess ha
  • Wow, great new design. The chat list looks deceptively similar to the new Outlook Mail design. At least in dark mode.
  • Finally, i had plans to give up, since the Telegram app is one of the most used app in my W10M device! Now let's see and wait!
  • Performance seems improved too! I was under the impression that Windows Phone 8.1 apps could not implement interactive notifications even on W10M... I hope WhatsApp learns from this, it really is a must in a messaging app.
  • Wicked!
    ​I am glad my tip was of use for once :)
    ​I only noticed the design, I had no idea it was a 2.0 version ^^" I was surprised to read it was not a UWP though, it certainly felt like it. Impressive still :)
  • "Starting download. Acquiring license. Error, see details: Try that again. Something went wrong. The error code is 0x803F8001, in case you need it. Close." Can't update the app
  • Who uses this?  Seriously.  All these various messaging platforms out there.  I live in the US. By FAR the way I communicate with people directly is regular texting.  FB Messenger communication happens once in a blue moon, usually as a consequence of a post I made on FB and the idiots at FB insisted they have a completely separate app for communication.
  • Its fast, rich featured, secured. You also can use it for saving some private information for later use in chat with yourself (up to 1.5GB in cloud for free). Has nice notifications and BOTS (for example we use it intensively at work and our bot is sending specific filtered notifications about events in our systems to various groups, thats REALLY easy to create and nice to have on phone/desktop at once). Chat history is saved across the devices (if you are using central servers) and you always can recall some historical information very fast (comparing to Skype for example). Also the program has built in Video/Image editors, so you can create edited/compressed photo in seconds to send it over even bad network. That are the features I'm remembering right away. 
  • Did not know half of these feaures. Thanks!
  • "Now Telegram has more than 100,000,000 monthly active users. 350,000 new users sign up each day. We're delivering 15 billion messages daily." This is from the telegram website. I personally know many people that use it.
  • Indeed
  • I would prefer if signal were available, but WhatsApp and Telegram will have to do..
  • I wish skype was as good as this its fast and simple . Skype video sucks it take forever to connect and It's lags big time in video chat shame on Microsoft. They should let telegram team work on skype.
  • If only WhatsApp would add interactive notifications too
  • Great but still lacks some important features
    1. The ability to save gifs
    2. It seriously needs an internal player
    I dont know that how unigram is safe and secure as a third party client but it will contain all the features that users want. The preview version is available in the store as a universal app.
  • Even the official app started as a third-party client http://www.windowscentral.com/telegram-messenger-client-windows-phone-no...
  • THANKS for this article, I love Telegram and this update is very interesting for me, I will try it)
  • Great update!