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Video calling has finally arrived on Telegram. The app promised group video calls earlier this year, at the start of the coronavirus-related lockdowns, which made apps like Zoom and Google Meet more popular than ever. It still hasn’t rolled out the group video calling functionality, but the alpha version of its one-on-one video calling feature has already launched for Android and iOS.
You can start a call from a contact’s profile page and switch from audio to video (and vice versa) at any time. The feature also supports “picture-in-picture” mode, which means you can read your other messages and send replies while talking with your contact. Telegram says that video calls, just like audio calls and text chats, are protected by the end-to-end encryption it’s known for.
Since this is just the alpha version of the feature, they promised to roll out improvements that would make this functionality more robust in the future. Telegram’s goal is to launch group video calls in the coming months, likely in an effort to provide an alternative to Zoom and its rivals.
2020 has highlighted the need for face-to-face communication, and our alpha version of video calls is now available for Android and iOS. You can start a video call from your contact’s profile page, and turn the video on or off at any time during voice calls. Like all other video content on Telegram, video calls are compatible with the floating-window PIP mode, letting you check your conversations and do other tasks while keeping eye contact.
The Telegram Team.