As a means to attract more users towards its cloud-based instant messaging solution, Telegram has now announced a new Voice Chat functionality for members in a group to speak to each other in real-time without actually have to dial someone one-by-one. The new feature has been designed to create a Voice chat room for everyone in a meeting where users can talk short but live with others instead of everyone showing up at an allotted time.

In this post, we’ll help you explain what the new “Voice Chat” feature is all about, how it works, and how you can get started with it straight away.

What is the new “Voice Chat” on Telegram all about?

Telegram has built a new Group Voice Chat feature that will let members of a group talk to each other in real-time that will run adjacent to text and media sharing within a chat thread. Offering a similar convenience as voice calls, the new Voice Chat feature will be able to provide flexibility in terms of voice communication because of the fact that users don’t need to schedule a call and anyone who’s online in the group can join in on a conversation.

It’s up to individual members of the group to decide whether they want to join in on a conversation or stick to sending texts or media within the group. But even with an ongoing Voice chat, users will be able to move around the Telegram app, browse through chat threads and send messages to others.

How many participants can you interact with during Voice Chats?

In case you don’t know, groups on Telegram can hold up to 200,000 users which is quite more than any other app with such popularity. But can the new Voice Chat feature be used by everyone in such a group? Not exactly.

Telegram says its new Voice Chat feature will be able to host “a few thousand participants” which in itself is more than enough for large family groups, offices, and even some live events.

Where can you use Telegram’s Voice Chat feature?

The new Voice Chat option on Telegram is a feature that will be available on the messaging app across platforms. You can thus use this feature from the following platforms:

  • iOS
  • Android
  • Windows 10
  • macOS

How to Start a Voice Chat

Before you start a Voice Chat, you need to make sure that you’re the admin of the group you want to commence voice chat on.

Unlike WhatsApp which discloses who the group’s admin is to anyone within the group, Telegram doesn’t let non-admins know who the admins of the group are. But if you’re one of the admins of a Telegram group, you’ll be able to see the “admin” tag right next to your name inside the group’s profile.

Once you’ve confirmed that you’re a group’s admin on Telegram, go to the group you want to start voice chat on and tap on the group profile at the top of the thread.

You will now be shown a list of all members of a group. To start a Voice Chat in this group, tap on the 3-dots icon at the top right, and select the ‘Start Voice Chat’ option.

You will be asked to confirm the Voice chat creation in a dialog that appears on the screen. Telegram has a neat little feature here which would allow only the admins of the group to speak during a Voice Chat while the non-admins will only be able to listen. To enable this Admin-only feature, check the box adjacent to “Only admins can talk” and then tap on ‘Create’.

The Voice Chat will now commence inside the group.

How to Join a Voice Chat

You can only join a Voice Chat on Telegram after a Voice Chat has been created by the group admin. When a Voice Chat has been created, a new “Voice Chat” bar will appear at the top of the group thread below the group profile. This bar will also show the number of people who are currently participating in the Voice Chat.

You can enter the Voice Chat in a Telegram Group at any time, provided you’re allowed to. If the admin of the group has enabled “Only admins can talk”, then you can only listen in on admins’ conversation if you’re not one of the admins of the group. If you are one of the admins or if “Only admins can talk” is disabled, you can join a conversation like everyone.

To join a Voice Chat, tap on the ‘Join’ button at the top right corner of the group thread. The ‘Join’ button will be available on the right-hand side of the Voice Chat bar at the top.

When you tap on ‘Join’, Telegram will now connect you with others inside Voice Chat.

How to invite friends to your Voice Chat

Unless the admin-only option is enabled, anyone can join a Voice Chat inside a group. If a person you know (inside the group) hasn’t joined the voice chat or if they’re not online, you can invite them to a Voice chat you have joined.

To invite friends to a Live Chat, you need to first create or join the Voice Chat yourself by following the steps we’ve mentioned above. After you join a voice chat, tap on the ‘Invite Member’ option at the top of the Voice Chat screen and select the group member you want to invite to the Voice Chat.

This should send an alert to the invited member and will give them a quick and easy way to join the group chat.

How to Speak during a Voice Chat

When you create or join a Voice Chat on Telegram, your microphone will remain muted. When your microphone is on mute, the Microphone button at the bottom will glow in blue. To unmute your microphone and start speaking, tap on the Microphone button at the bottom of the Voice Chat screen.

When you tap to unmute yourself during a Voice Chat, the Microphone button will turn green and everyone who has joined the Voice Chat will now be able to listen to your voice.

You can now start speaking in the Voice Chat and every time you speak up, other participants of the chat will be able to see that you’re speaking. You can also check the list of people in a Voice chat to see who is speaking and who is listening at any point in time.

Are you excited to use the new Voice Chat feature on Telegram? Let us know in the comments below. 

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