Telegram expands maximum number of people in group to 200,000

The messaging application Telegram, a well-known competitor of WhatsApp, announced an update on Tuesday (22) that expands the maximum number of people in a single group to 200,000 users. The previous maximum was 100,000 members. "If you've ever felt alone in a group with 100,000 people, the Telegram now allows groups of up to 200,000 members — so you can feel twice as lonely," quipped the company in the official report. The application, which announced to have reached the mark of 200 million users worldwide in March 2018, was created by the Russian Pavel Durov, who is now in exile in Dubai, also creator of VKontakt, Russia's Facebook page. The country entered in court last year to block the application, under allegations that the Telegram was not delivering private messages. The update goes on the wrong side of the best-known social networks, which are under heavy scrutiny on the dissemination of rumors. On Monday, WhatsApp announced that it would limit the forwarding of messages, reducing the number of possible recipients of 20 to 5:00 pm around the world. Other changes in addition to the increase in the number of users, the Telegram also changed permissions for groups, enabling administrators to determine what may or may not be shared. In the ad, the company claims that it is now possible that administrators are the only ones to post messages in groups, while other users can only read. Also it is now possible to remove the option of upload GIFs or even stickers, the stickers — a feature that only recently came to WhatsApp. Other features announced include the option change to retrieve a deleted message or conversation and night mode enhancements to Android.