Comment on Telegram adds location-flavored extras and full group ownership transfers

Messaging platform Telegram has added a new bunch of location-based features via an update. Users of the latest version of the app will find an ‘Add People Nearby’ setting which they can use to quickly exchange contact details without the need to type in digits. Coupled with a prior update, which lets Telegram users control who can see their phone number, it looks like it’ll make it possible to open a chat channel with a new contact without having to hand over your actual phone number. Also via the ‘Add People Nearby’ contacts setting, the update lets users surface nearby public chat groups — by displaying any open chat channels in their proximity. document.createElement('video'); https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Groups-nearby.mp4 The setting also includes an option to ‘Create a Local Group’ — which does what it says on the tin, allowing users to set up a chat in their locality. “This update opens up a new world of location-based group chats for anything from conferences, to festivals, to stadiums, to campuses, to chatting with people hanging out in the same cafe,” Telegram suggests, re-upping an idea that’s clocked up more than its fair share of startup tech cycles over the years.