Telegram ‘Premium’ subscription is showing up in beta builds of the app

Image: Telegram

Telegram is testing a new way to bring in revenue. There is a new set of stickers and reaction emoji that you can only get by subscribing to Telegram Premium, as first spotted by Android Police.

Telegram Premium doesn't exist yet. Telegram didn't reply to the request for comment. Users with access to Telegram's TestFlight builds are able to send each other exploding-heart and flying-ghost reactions, a sticker in which a cute yellow duck is sad, and a few other new things. If you send a sad duck to a non-subscriber, they'll get a prompt to sign up, so they'll need Telegram Premium to see it.

When Premium will launch more widely, and what other features will be part of the subscription, there is no word on what it will cost. This is a long time coming from Telegram. Telegram will begin to generate revenue next year in order to not sell out like other messaging apps.

Telegram's approach to paid features appears to be in line with the model of messaging app monetization. Power users get more toys to play with when they subscribe to Discord's Nitro subscription, which costs $10 a month. It isn't something users need to use, but it has been popular enough to convince Discord that it is a long-term business model.

Durov promised in 2020 that the parts of Telegram that are free will stay free. The way to make money with messaging apps is not to get in the middle of chats with friends but to find other things to do with the app. The idea of a super app is a popular one. Telegram is likely to keep finding ways to make money.

Making money without making users angry? That is harder. As ads started to appear in Telegram channels last fall, authors and subscribers revolted so aggressively that Durov said it would build a way to turn them off. I bet disabling ads is a benefit of a Premium subscription. Telegram appears to be starting small rather than moving the platform to freemium.

With more than 500 million users on the platform, Telegram might only need to convince a small percentage to subscribe in order to become a break-even business.