Telegram's latest update brings a redesigned call interface that uses less of your phone's battery

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Telegram logo behind silhouette of person checking a mobile device

Image Credits: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Telegram is rolling out a new update that introduces improved calls with a new design that uses less of your phone’s battery. The update also brings new animations, enhancements to the app’s bot platform and more.

The company says it has redesigned calls and added backgrounds that change dynamically based on the call’s status: ringing, active or ended. The new interface requires fewer resources than before, which means it saves battery life and works better on older devices. The update also brings improvements to call quality. Telegram says it plans to launch more improvements to connection and audio quality in 2024.

Telegram is also launching updates to its bot platform, which lets developers integrate services into the Telegram ecosystem. Bots can now react to messages and manage reactions, quotes and links, send replies to other chats or topics, and more. Bots can also get information about giveaways and boosts in channels where they are admins.

Additionally, Telegram is bringing its vaporize animation to both iOS and Android users after previously testing it with select users. The new effect plays whenever you delete a message, and is designed to bring a bit of fun to the app.

The launch of the new features comes a month after Telegram announced improvements to channels, emoji customization for reactions and stats for stories to compete better with WhatsApp, which launched its broadcast channels features to all users in September 2023. Although Telegram has had channels for a long time now, the app has to keep innovating in order to compete with WhatsApp.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said in his broadcast channel in WhatsApp that the channels feature had crossed the mark of 500 million monthly active users. For context, WhatsApp has more than 2 billion monthly active users and Telegram has over 800 million monthly active users.

Telegram spruces up its channels with new discovery and customization features

Telegram's latest update brings a redesigned call interface that uses less of your phone's battery

by with No Comment Tech

Telegram logo behind silhouette of person checking a mobile device

Image Credits: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Telegram is rolling out a new update that introduces improved calls with a new design that uses less of your phone’s battery. The update also brings new animations, enhancements to the app’s bot platform and more.

The company says it has redesigned calls and added backgrounds that change dynamically based on the call’s status: ringing, active or ended. The new interface requires fewer resources than before, which means it saves battery life and works better on older devices. The update also brings improvements to call quality. Telegram says it plans to launch more improvements to connection and audio quality in 2024.

Telegram is also launching updates to its bot platform, which lets developers integrate services into the Telegram ecosystem. Bots can now react to messages and manage reactions, quotes and links, send replies to other chats or topics, and more. Bots can also get information about giveaways and boosts in channels where they are admins.

Additionally, Telegram is bringing its vaporize animation to both iOS and Android users after previously testing it with select users. The new effect plays whenever you delete a message, and is designed to bring a bit of fun to the app.

The launch of the new features comes a month after Telegram announced improvements to channels, emoji customization for reactions and stats for stories to compete better with WhatsApp, which launched its broadcast channels features to all users in September 2023. Although Telegram has had channels for a long time now, the app has to keep innovating in order to compete with WhatsApp.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said in his broadcast channel in WhatsApp that the channels feature had crossed the mark of 500 million monthly active users. For context, WhatsApp has more than 2 billion monthly active users and Telegram has over 800 million monthly active users.

Telegram spruces up its channels with new discovery and customization features

illustration of key over cloud icon

Apple launches a redesigned iCloud app for Windows

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illustration of key over cloud icon

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

Apple has launched a redesigned iCloud app for Windows to offer a better onboarding and content syncing experience for iPhone or iPad users who don’t own a Mac.

The new app, available for Windows 10 and 11, has a new setup experience for easier onboarding. It also has a syncing status indicator for different services to better indicate how many items have been downloaded or uploaded.

Image Credits: Apple

What’s more, you can also use a physical security key to sign into your Apple ID. Additionally, the updated app reduces the frequency of sign-in prompts, has improved photo-syncing performance with Microsoft Photos and displays easy shortcuts to access other Apple services.

Last September, Apple redesigned iCloud.com to include features like browser notifications for Mail and Calendar on a PC, a customizable home page with the ability to take quick actions and a slideshow view for photos.

Apple first announced separate apps for iCloud, Apple TV and Apple Music for the Windows platform in 2022. Eventually, it introduced some apps — including Apple Music and Apple TV — in preview last year in a bid to replace iTunes. These apps are now out of preview and available as a standalone experience on Windows. Plus, for device management there is a Devices app, so users don’t need to access iTunes for that. The iTunes app still exists on the platform, but it is primarily for users to access podcasts and audiobooks.

Two screenshots of the redesigned NYT Games app

NYT Games debuts redesigned app to boost discovery and simplify navigation

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Two screenshots of the redesigned NYT Games app

Image Credits: NYT

The NYT Games app is debuting a new redesign to help users discover games and track their progress more easily. The redesign comes nearly a year after the New York Times renamed its games-focused app from “NYT Crosswords” to “NYT Games” to better represent its growing family of games. The redesign, which features new game card designs and streamlined navigation, is the company’s next step in building out its gaming hub.

NYT Games product design director Jennifer Scheerer told TechCrunch in an interview that the company redesigned the app to convert it from a place that was initially just for crosswords into a hub for all of its games. The previous version of the app was primarily designed for crosswords, and as the company added more games, the team felt the app outgrew its previous design and needed to accommodate the growing portfolio of games.

The redesign aims to convey a more technologically modern and inviting atmosphere to users. NYT Games principal product designer Lian Chang told TechCrunch that the redesign caters to both old and new players.

“We want new players to get a sense of the breadth of all the games, so we used a lot of color,” Chang said. “The brand icons are very clear and we streamlined the typography. So, people coming in for the first time should be able to discover the games that they want to play. For people who have played a lot of our games, we wanted the feel to be more functional. The game cards on the feed are helpful for discovery when games haven’t been played yet.”

As soon as you start playing a new game, the game card reflects the user’s progress to make it easier for them to see what they’ve already played or how far along they are in a puzzle. Chang says the redesigned game cards incentivize players to come back to a game and finish it. The idea behind the redesigned game cards was to not only be inviting for discovery purposes, but also be functional.

The company also wanted to make navigation simpler by adding all of its games, archives and packs in one place to make it easier for users to get to the games they want to play.

“What we had before was crossword-focused and all the other games were sort of in a horizontal scroll,” Scheerer said. “What we’re trying to do is give a list of all of the games we have to make it a little easier to find a new game, and not hide them. So I think this gives room to make it easier to add new games and add more features for games as we go.”

The old design of the app had five tabs at the bottom, while the redesigned version only has three. Chang says the team tested different numbers and configurations of tabs to see what worked best. After testing different options, the team decided to only feature tabs for “Games,” “Stats” and “Leaderboard” to streamline the app’s homepage.

The redesign also features personalized greetings that are meant to set a warm and welcoming tone for players. The greetings change over the course of the day and are responsive to factors like whether you’ve opened up a game first thing in the morning or are coming back in the evening to play some more.

As for the future, Chang and Scheerer say they will continue to listen to feedback from users as the company builds out its gaming hub, noting that the redesign is just the beginning of the work the Games team wants to do.