Telegram work, which was first announced earlier this weekend, offers features including a personalized start page, preset answers, welcome and farewell messages, chatbots, chat tags, and more. It can even be used to specify work hours.

In the meanwhile, 50% of the money from advertisements displayed in public Telegram channels with 1,000 or more users can now be earned by the channels themselves.

The improvements were released shortly after Telegram creator Pavel Durov said in an interview with the Financial Times that the app, which now has over 900 million users, will turn a profit by 2025.

Given that Telegram Business is a service that needs users to subscribe to the premium Premium version in order to use, it is evident that this drive is aimed at preparing for a potential IPO.

Telegram Premium is a collection of enhanced features that may be purchased as a three-, six-, or one-year subscription for $4.99 per month for iOS and Android. (Premium may also be bought within the program on Mac, PC, and Android via the @PremiumBot. Since Telegram doesn't have to split commissions with the app stores, this is available at a lower price.)

Telegram Premium surpassed one million users as of December 2022. Durov said in January 2024 that Premium had increased to 5 million users, up from 4 million in the previous month, suggesting that the number of members is growing faster.

Telegram corporate, which provides tools and capabilities that corporate clients may utilize without requiring coding knowledge, is probably going to give Premium another boost.

Businesses can decide to greet visitors with a personalized start page for empty conversations, where they can modify the text and sticker users see before starting a discussion, and display their location and operating hours on a map. Telegram Business will include "quick replies," which are shortcuts to pre-written messages that support formatting, links, media, stickers, and files. These capabilities are similar to those seen on WhatsApp.

For consumers who interact with a business for the first time, businesses may also customize welcoming messages and choose how long they want to be shown. Away messages allow them to control their availability while the company is closed or the owner is away on vacation.

Additionally, the companies may use colored labels to group their talks into chat folders such as delivery, claims, orders, VIP, feedback, and any other that makes sense for them.

Additionally, companies have the ability to construct chat links that, when clicked, automatically launch a Telegram conversation and ask the user to do a task, such as monitoring an order or booking a table, among other things. Businesses may also install Telegram bots to answer messages on their behalf. These bots can be AI assistants or bots from other technologies.

Future upgrades to Telegram Business will provide further functionality, according to the business.

When he told the FT earlier this month that Telegram plans to provide AI-powered chatbots for corporate customers, Durov already gave a hint as to what these would include.

Overall, the capabilities may bring competition to a sector where corporate communication is dominated by Meta's programs, like as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. With its Apple Messages for Businesses, which are utilized by organizations like Shopify, Aramark, Four Seasons, Harry & David, Delta, American Express, Dish, Discover, Hilton, Lowe's, Wells Fargo, West Elm, Kimpton Hotels, Vodafone Germany, and others, even Apple has only narrowly carved out a small place in this market.

Although a Premium subscription is necessary to utilize Telegram's new business capabilities, there is no extra charge to activate the new features. (You can find them in the app under Settings > Telegram Business.)

The firm makes money from Telegram Ads in addition to Premium memberships; it just launched ad income sharing utilizing toncoin, a token on the TON blockchain. The revenue-sharing scheme has now been initiated, the firm said on Sunday.

In the past, Telegram introduced a cryptocurrency wallet in every area outside of the United States and experimented with auctioning usernames on the TON blockchain.