Telegram brings in payments through bots, new design templates and video messages

Telegram is rolling out support for Chatbot payments. Users will now be able to buy stuff from chatbots, almost 2 years after the company first introduced them into its ecosystem. Along with letting bots play shopkeepers, the company has also introduced short video messages and a new design for Instant view.

Telegram’s ecosystem is markedly different from those of its peers. The company devotes a significant portion of its focus on maintaining the sanctity of its platform. Introducing chatbots was a big step when the company took it two years ago and it has taken it this long to bring in payments as well. Companies will now be able to use this and market their goodies through artificial intelligences.

The payments are being powered by Stripe. The company also plans to bring in local partners like RazorPay, FlutterWave, Yandex.Money as well. The company is certainly not the first in its market to bringing in this feature but, it is not the last either. Sure, platforms like Facebook already have the feature enabled but others like WhatsApp, have yet to allow bots on theirs.

There is a demo account called @ShopBot already out there. Go give it a try and tell us what you think about it.

Also included in this round of updates is support for video messages, which allows users to send short video snippets that can be used to communicate from within chats. Channel owners can deploy the feature a well and use it to send short videos to their followers. And, they will also be made available through URLs called Telescopes. You see what the company is going at here? Popular videos can now be shared to other platforms through their URLs.

The design is undergoing some changes as well. The company is making changes to its Instant View service which allows users to view a Telegram optimized version of websites. The company is now expanding upon the design of the interface and has invited users to come up with their own designs. You can earn $100 for every template created, and there is a $10,000 top prize and $5,000 second prize as well.