Telegram has announced eight new features including silent messages, slow mode, admin titles and animated emoji, which give users more power over notification sounds, as well as more control for group admins.

Coupled with the animated stickers update in July, changes brought in this silent update is intended to bring “more peace of mind” to the users, according to the company’s blog post, which also mentioned that the next “update won’t be sent silently”.

After a user receives the app update, they’ll have access to the following new eight features.

Silent messaging

Users will be able to have their messages delivered without sound following the update. When sending a message, holding the send button will display Send Without Sound option; if selected the recipient of the message will receive a notification as usual but their device won’t make any sound, even if its Do Not Disturb mode is turned off.

Slow mode

Group admins are being given increased control with Slow Mode, which can be found in the Group Permissions section. Admins can set a time interval for messages sent by the same user.

For example, if the slow mode is set to 30 seconds, individual group members will only be able to send another message on the group chat 30 seconds after their previous one. The timer will appear in each user’s chat window. Admins can keep it on permanently and also toggle manually.

Admin titles

Group admins will also be able to set custom titles for themselves, which will appear instead of the ‘admin’ label and can be anything they fancy. Users will be able to customise their title via admin’s rights in Group Settings.

Timestamps and improved scrubbing

The update also brings improved UI for video sharing. Videos will now show thumbnail preview when users interact with the seek bar, making it easier to scrub through. Users can also add a timestamp to the video caption, which will be highlighted automatically and will redirect the recipient to that time when the timestamp link is clicked. Timestamps are also supported when replying to a video. Timestamps feature also work with YouTube videos.

Animated emoji

Adding to the July update that brought animated stickers to Telegram, this time around the platform is also getting animated emojis — the usual emojis, animated. Users can also control if the animated stickers play just once or in a loop via Sticker Settings.

Android’s new attachment menu

The attachment area of Android devices gets a major facelift as it’s now just a click/swipe away in the chat window. But that isn’t all. Users will also be able to select whether to group the images together and send them without compression or not.

Accent colours for night mode (iOS)

Customisations for Night mode are in but only for iOS users, who can now choose from an array of colours for night themes.

Comments Widget

Users will now be able to add comments widget of Telegram’s tool for commenting on channel posts, Comments.App, to their website. This might encourage Telegram users to log in and leave comments on the website. Those commenting will also have an option to subscribe to future comments and keep updated about the conversation via DiscussBot.

Also read: What is Telegram X, and how is it different from Telegram?