<metaproperty="og:description"content="Today marks seven years of Telegram. In 2013, we began as a small app focused on secure messaging and have since grown into a platform with over 400M users. Now this platform also offers video calls.">
<ahref="/file/464001711/1/l0qNFLTeZVM.207426/078407f385fd834186"target="_blank"><imgsrc="/file/464001842/1/JzNSp4nwahc.74368/1b2df613bb94a3b876"srcset="/file/464001711/1/l0qNFLTeZVM.207426/078407f385fd834186, 1200w"title="Keep your friends close and your phone out of the water."alt="Video Calls and Seven Years of Telegram"/></a>
</div>
<p>Today marks <strong>seven years</strong> of Telegram. In 2013, we began as a small app focused on secure messaging and have since grown into a platform with <strong>over 400M</strong> users. Telegram is now one of the <strong>top 10</strong> most-downloaded apps and is used all over the world to stay in touch with family, collaborate with classmates and coordinate coworkers. </p>
<p>We did not reach this milestone on our own – Telegram has never advertised and every user has come to the app because of a recommendation from someone they trust. Strong principles and quality features speak for themselves, and millions of you listened. We've heard you as well, and will continue to develop features that make Telegram much more than just a messaging app. Today we're adding the one you've been asking for – fast and secure <strong>video calls</strong>.</p>
<p>2020 highlighted the need for face-to-face communication, and our <strong>alpha version</strong> of video calls is now available on both Android and iOS. You can start a video call from your contact's profile page, and <strong>switch video on or off</strong> at any time during voice calls. Like all other video content on Telegram, video calls support <strong>picture-in-picture mode</strong>, allowing you to scroll through chats and multitask while maintaining eye contact.</p>
<divclass="blog_video_player_wrap"style="max-width: 400px; margin: 20px auto 20px;">
<videoclass="blog_video_player tl_blog_vid_autoplay"onclick="videoTogglePlay(this)"autoplayloopcontrolsmutedposter="/file/464001451/1/5lCPAl7qZEc.81216/8930ad8fa7c0ee2009"style="max-width: 400px;"title="Donut not included."alt="A Telegram Video call as seen on iOS">
<p>All video calls are protected with <strong>end-to-end encryption</strong>. To confirm your connection, compare the <strong>four emoji</strong> shown on-screen for you and your chat partner – if they match, your call is <strong>100% secured</strong> by time-tested encryption also used in Telegram's Secret Chats and Voice Calls. You can find more details on <ahref="https://core.telegram.org/api/end-to-end/video-calls">this page</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Our apps for Android and iOS have <ahref="https://core.telegram.org/reproducible-builds">reproducible builds</a>, so anyone can <strong>verify encryption</strong> and confirm that their app uses the <strong>exact same</strong><ahref="https://telegram.org/apps#source-code">open source code</a> that we publish with each update.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Video calls will receive more features and improvements in future versions, as we work toward <ahref="https://telegram.org/blog/400-million">launching</a><strong>group video calls</strong> in the coming months. But for this midyear milestone, you can now enjoy a little one-on-one time with those closest to you, whether they're in the other room or on another continent.</p>
<p>To help you celebrate, we've added another batch of new <strong>animated emoji</strong>. To get one of these <imgclass="emoji"src="//telegram.org/img/emoji/40/F09F9187.png"width="20"height="20"alt="👇"/> in a chat, simply send a message with a single emoji.</p>
<divclass="blog_video_player_wrap"style="max-width: 400px; margin: 20px auto 20px;">
<videoclass="blog_video_player tl_blog_vid_autoplay"onclick="videoTogglePlay(this)"autoplayloopcontrolsmutedposter="/file/464001676/1/eTIfNW26YUs.68975/c7cd8b774921a02bd7"style="max-width: 400px;"title="Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."alt="New animated emoji">
<ahref="https://t.me/share/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftelegram.org%2Fblog%2Fvideo-calls&text=Introducing%20Video%20Calls%20for%20Telegram%27s%207th%20Birthday"class="tl_telegram_share_btn"id="tl_telegram_share_btn"data-text="Introducing Video Calls for Telegram's 7th Birthday"data-url="https://telegram.org/blog/video-calls"><iclass="tl_telegram_share_icon"></i><spanclass="tl_telegram_share_label"target="_blank">Forward</span></a>
<ahref="https://twitter.com/share"class="tl_twitter_share_btn"id="tl_twitter_share_btn"data-text="Introducing Video Calls for Telegram's 7th Birthday"data-url="https://telegram.org/blog/video-calls"data-via="Telegram">Tweet <spanclass="tl_twitter_share_cnt"></span></a>
<h4class="dev_blog_card_title">Telegram Browser, Mini App Store, Gifting Stars and More</h4>
<divclass="dev_blog_card_lead">Today's update brings a new in-app browser that supports multiple tabs and makes Web3 available to almost a billion users, a Mini App Store…</div>
<h4class="dev_blog_card_title">Mini App Bar, Paid Media, Story Search & More</h4>
<divclass="dev_blog_card_lead">Our June update adds a way to minimize mini apps into a compact bar, helps content creators monetize their channels with paid photos and…</div>
<h4class="dev_blog_card_title">Telegram Stars: Pay for Digital Goods and More</h4>
<divclass="dev_blog_card_lead">Over 400 million users interact with bots and mini apps on Telegram every month – to buy products, access services, play games, and much…</div>
<h4class="dev_blog_card_title">Message Effects, Hashtag Search, and More</h4>
<divclass="dev_blog_card_lead">With this update, you can add spectacular animated effects to messages you send, move captions above media, find public posts using global…</div>
