These days it seems like more and more things are focusing on convenience, and with that more and more apps are doing what they can to make things simpler, faster, and more efficient. Messaging app Telegram is doing their part to make things simpler for their users by bringing an in-line bots platform to the app, (launched offiially last year) which lets users have a conversation with a computer-run Telegram account that can respond to them and process questions and requests. Today Telegram is making their bot platform even better and has announced the arrival of Bots 2.0, complete with more developer tools and more things for users to take advantage of.
Although the bots platform 2.0 is open to developers so they can create a collection of chat bots with seemingly endless possibilities, Telegram themselves have kicked things off by introducing four different bots to get things started. This includes the @music bot which lets users interact with an in-line keyboard to search for and find music to listen to and play right from the chat, and they can even use the bot to send music to any other chat that they’re in. Telegram has also created bots for @YouTube which essentially does the same thing as the @music bot but with videos from YouTube, @Sticker which sends relevant stickers to chats based on emojis, and @Foursquare which lets users send addresses and things like venues to people in other chats.
Since the @Foursquare chatbot uses your location to share it with others so they would know where to meet if you were planning an event or just a night out, Telegram has new permissions involved that alert the user to the location sharing request and the user has to give Telegram permission to share it in the conversation. Telegram also received some noticeable tweaks in the visual department with brand new UI changes, more specifically Telegram on Android has a brand new chat screen. Telegram also has a new video player for the iOS version, and although it isn’t quite available yet on Android you can now tap and hold on a GIF image to preview it. Telegram says the GIF preview should be in the Android version soon.
