Telegram adds custom notification sounds, new chat muting options, more

What you need to know

Telegram has enabled a feature that allows the setting of custom alert tones.
Any sound less than five seconds long and smaller than 300KB in size can now be set as an alert tone.
Other improvements include the ability to set a custom mute duration for the first time.

Now you can choose your own custom alert tone for when your boss is pinging you on your day off.

Telegram, one of the more popular secure instant messaging services, has released a new iOS app update that adds support for custom notification sounds and more.

The new update, which can be downloaded from the App Store, allows people to select their own custom notification tone. That tone can be anything including short audio files, voice messages, and more. If it’s a sound, Telegram now lets you see that as a notification tone. However, note that the sound must be less than five seconds long and smaller than 300KB in size.

Those who would prefer their chats don’t make any sound at all also have a new feature — custom mute durations. Now, Telegram users can tell the app to mute a chat for 9 minutes, for example.

For years, Telegram users have been able to temporarily mute chats to take a break from notifications, like for 8 hours or 2 days. Now you can also pause notifications for a specific duration, like the length of a midday nap or extended vacation.

Each chat has a streamlined menu for modifying alerts – choose Disable Sound to receive notifications silently, or one of the Mute options to turn off notifications completely.

There are a number of other improvements including improvements to bots and a whole lot more. You can learn about everything the latest Telegram update has to offer in the announcement blog post.

Telegram is one of the best iPhone chat apps in the App Store and you can download it for free right now.