Telegram introduces ‘connected websites’ and adds video streaming and auto-night mode to its Android app

Messaging platform **Telegram** has introduced a new ‘Telegram Login Widget’ for “external websites”. [caption id=“attachment_4340821” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Image: Telegram[/caption] Telegram users can easily login to websites with the help of the login widget. To get started, users will need to enter their contact number in the widget to start the login process. After submitting the contact number, the external website will send a confirmation message to authorise the web browser. Once the browser is authorised, users can get ‘two-click login’ to all the websites that support Telegram login. The company posted a detailed blog post to explain how ‘Telegram Login’ works and added that it will send the Telegram name, username, and profile image of the user to the owner of the external website. For the users concerned with data privacy, the post clarified that the actual phone number of the user will not be shared. The platform will also send users a complete summary message about the data that you have sent to any given website along with the permissions that you have granted at every login. Users can revoke the permissions or change them at any given time to stay in control. [caption id=“attachment_4340823” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Image: Telegram[/caption] What is interesting about this new system is that websites can also request for your permission to send messages to you with the help of their telegram bot. Of course, for that to work out, the website should indeed have a telegram bot in the first place. Telegram bots have also been updated to ask for your ‘permission to speak’ and users will no longer have to initiate the conversation. The company stated that this could transform websites as they can make bots for customer support, payments, or even sending notifications about account statements, flight updates and shipment tracking. [caption id=“attachment_4340825” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] Image: Telegram[/caption] Telegram login is “the first phase of the Telegram ID project” which the company will roll-out throughout the year. This is not the only thing that the company has added. According to another blog post, the company is adding ‘video streaming’ option to its Android app so that users can watch the videos without the need to completely download them. One thing to note here is that all the “newly uploaded” videos from the official Telegram app can be streamed with version 4.8. This will actually make the video streaming behaviour similar to YouTube. Last but not the least, this new update will also bring the ‘Auto-Night’ mode for Android users where the app will automatically switch to night mode according to the user preference of ‘after nightfall’ or in ‘low-light conditions’. The app also gives users an option about ‘Preferred night theme’.