Telegram adds registration without SIM card

The latest update to messaging app Telegram introduces the ability to register an account without a SIM card, through anonymous blockchain-based numbers.

Until today, Telegram users could register to the app with their phone number. That phone number also served as a login. Users could find one another knowing contact details. The company emphasized that the user can hide it from third parties in the Messenger settings.

In today’s blog post, Telegram said:

Today starts a new era of privacy. You can have a Telegram account without a SIM card and log in using blockchain-powered anonymous numbers available on the Fragment platform.

Users can buy numbers for Toncoin (TON) on the Fragment platform. Prices for blockchain-powered numbers start from $17 to $10,000.

Related: Ton Crypto Analysis: Explore Ton Coin Network

In October 2022, Telegram officially introduced the ability to buy and sell short, recognizable usernames for personal accounts, public groups, and channels. The entire process is handled via a live auction, Fragment:

The ownership of these collectible usernames is secured in the immutable ledger of TON, a fast and scalable blockchain network. Owners can add multiple username aliases to their personal account, group or channel.
 
Each collectible name can be accessed with its @username on Telegram, or outside Telegram using links such as username.t.me and t.me/username.

With the latest update, users can not only manually delete messages sent or reserved by both parties, but also set a global auto-delete timer to delete messages in all new chats automatically:

Existing chats will not be affected, but you can easily expand your auto-delete settings to any of them from the new menu in Settings > Privacy & Security > Auto-Delete Messages.

Telegram has improved Topics to organize discussion into groups, an “aggressive anti-spam” mode for automated spam filters, and the ability to generate a temporary QR code to add everyone without a username or phone number.

Telegram also offers several emoji-related improvements, such as iOS emoji search, more custom emojis for premium users, and more interactive emojis.

Finally, the company confirmed that the vault usage page in the Android app had been updated to match iOS. This means you can view vault usage by chat and delete all media files from a chat.