Telegram continues its gaming push with a huge mini app update

You probably don’t realize how popular Telegram is. With 950 million monthly active users, it is the fourth most popular messaging app in the world.

And with 50 million monthly downloads, more than any other messaging app, it is not slowing down anytime soon.

However, Telegram doesn’t just want to be a messaging app. Its true goal is to be an “everything” app, much like WeChat. A place where you can keep in touch with your friends, send payments (mostly with crypto), and play games.

In Telegram, these games are known as mini apps, and they are wildly popular.

It seems like Telegram has figured out they have a real winner on their hands, as they have just released the “largest update in the history of mini apps."

These updates include:

• Full-screen mode.

• The ability to share media directly from mini apps, including the all important referral code. 

• Device motion tracking, which will allow developers to add unique motion controls to their games or build immersive VR experiences.

• The ability to add a mini app to your phone home screen. Basically, give your favorite mini app an iPhone icon.

• Geolocation access, which gives developers the ability to make location-based games or interactive maps for events.

• Subscription plans, which will make it easier for developers to monetize their mini apps.

• The ability for your favorite mini apps to send you gifts as a reward for progressing in the game.

• Downloadable documents and files, including AI-generated profile pictures and audio files.

Ultimately, Telegram’s gaming push is not something to be ignored. Gaming is an absolutely huge market. People spent over $100 billion on just in-game purchases in the last year alone!

Mobile gaming is an especially huge market, accounting for 57% of the global gaming market. This makes games on Telegram, an already popular and rapidly growing app that wants to push gaming, a massive opportunity.

Perhaps this is why more and more founders are choosing to build on Telegram. 

It’s hard to beat such built-in distribution.