Telegram 5.11 adds Scheduled Messages, Custom Cloud Themes, and more

XDA

By Jack Price

Published Sep 6, 2019

Telegram's latest update adds to its extensive privacy features, allows users to schedules messages, customise the app's appearance, and more.

Telegram, the cloud-based instant messaging and VOIP service that is well-known for its fluidity and ease-of-use, has continually added new features since its initial explosion in popularity. While its best known for its security, the platform is by no means lacking in features that we're used to seeing from more popular messaging apps like Facebook Messenger. In its latest major update, it's added more features that would make even Messenger green with envy. This includes scheduled messages, reminders, custom cloud themes, and extended privacy settings.

The norm for most messaging apps is you hit send and that's it; everyone can now see the message. But now with Telegram, you can schedule messages to send at a future time and date. Holding down the send button when you're ready to send the message will bring up a menu added in a previous update, only now it's populated with two options. You can send the message without sound, or schedule it for a later date, as this handy short video by Telegram shows.

This scheduling capability doesn't end there, though. Holding send on one of your saved messages will prompt you to set a reminder for a certain time. When the reminder is triggered, you'll get a unique-looking notification from Telegram, titled "Reminder".

[video width="540" height="700" mp4="https://static1.xdaimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/reminder.mp4" loop="true"]

Telegram first enabled customisation back in 2017, with custom themes. They're now following on from that, with custom cloud themes. Similar to Messenger's chat colors feature, Telegram now allows you to set an accent color that changes the color of all the main UI elements. You can share your theme with other users, allowing them to select and use your theme in just two taps.

[video width="540" height="1000" mp4="https://static1.xdaimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/color.mp4" loop="true"]

For iOS users, Telegram has now condensed message options into a single menu for forwarding, replying and more, whereas before things could get a little messy. The app now also allows you to select individual parts of a message for copying, instead of only the entire message.

Privacy is one of Telegram's main focuses, and this latest update only improves upon the service's abundance of privacy features. At least, that's what their blog post says. The reality is that we're only getting one new privacy setting. This new setting gives you more control over who can see your phone number. Setting the option "Who can see my phone number" to "Nobody" will now offer a new sub-option, allowing users to control their visibility for users who already have their phone number. Also, setting "Who can find me by my number" to "My Contacts" will prevent random users who add their number from matching their profile with the number.

On a less serious note, Telegram now animates more emoji when you send them in a message by themselves. Sending a single