Anonymous Group Administrators in Telegram

Telegram is one of the most popular third party, cloud based messaging app. It is a multi-platform messaging app that was launched in 2013 and now has over 400 million monthly users. Even though it is popular, still there are lots of people that are unaware of this. This can be due to a number of reasons including personal preferences or awareness etc. Telegram works pretty much similar to other apps and has the same functionality, such as messaging, group texts, calls and sending files to other users. The most prominent feature of Telegram is privacy. Telegram ensures that it uses end to end encryption and it claims it is the safest option. Telegram also comes in direct competition with WhatsApp. WhatsApp since being bought by Facebook has received alot of critique with their hopeless attempts on showing advertisements inside WhatsApp which applies that our messages will no more be as private as we think they are.

Telegram has brought in some new features with its most recent update of version 2.4.3. The updates are more focused on enabling the group admins make their forums more safe and interactive, as per telegram. The updates will also help in managing the content that is shared more easily. The most prominent of the updates is making the group admins anonymous. Other updates include channel comments which enables comments on posts to be more interactive and the animated pop-ups and stickers for android users.

How to Enable Anonymous Mode

Some time back one way of staying bit in the dark was through the Telegram Ghost Profile, this time Telegram brings an anonymous group admin feature that enables the admins to remain anonymous in a group and all the messages sent from the admins will directly reflect on the name of the group itself. This feature can be enabled by toggling “Remain Anonymous” on Desktop and “Send Anonymously” in mobile.

Go to the group where you are the admin and once in Group Settings open Administrator and click on your name and make the selection to remain hidden.

Is Anonymous Admin a step in Right direction?

In a world where privacy is one of the main causes of concern and with everything gone digital, staying hidden and anonymous feels like a difficult feat to pull off. Telegram has now introduced anonymous admin for the messaging community of telegram which was previously introduced in channel posts only. This feature is not only unique but also a good step towards ensuring the privacy of its users.

Like every other online application, vulnerabilities related to telegram also popped up but Telegram is always more focused towards user privacy. This article will discuss why the anonymous admin update is a step in the right direction.

Admin Privacy: Telegram has been widely used to organize democratic protests around the world, as said by the company itself. And these days especially, many worldwide protests are being organized. Now that the admins will remain anonymous, the organizers will feel safe and will have complete freedom in expressing themselves. Telegram will be the best option for the organizers to remain anonymous and have some sense of security. Apart from this, not everyone likes the unwanted attention. When a person posts or sends a message on any social media platform as an admin, naturally he/she becomes the center of attention. Once anonymous mode has been turned on it will keep the admin anonymous, the message will reflect on the group and not on the person. Sometimes when someone sends a controversial message, it causes a backlash as difference of opinion occurs and this leads towards personal grudges. As an anonymous admin, the person will not have to worry about such matters.

Enables efficiency: In a group, different admins send different messages and posts, and have different roles. Usually when someone sends a message in a group chat, his/her inbox gets flooded with messages of people inquiring about different things, which can become a headache and pretty difficult to handle considering the size of the group. The new feature reflects on the group itself, the burden will be shared among the team members resulting in time efficiency and increase in productivity. This will also reduce the pressure and frustration from a single admin.

Generates curiosity: It is in human nature to seek something that is mysterious or unknown to them. When a message will be sent from an anonymous person related to any matter, may it be controversial or knowledgeable, curiosity will be aroused. People will want to know more about it, which will further lead to continuity of the topic at hand. 

Interactive and fun: Being an admin and managing groups can be pretty boring and monotonous at times. For the above said reasons, handling and managing group will become more fun and interactive not only for the admins but also for the members of the group.

Conclusion

In modern era, where everything has gone digital, there is little or no privacy at all for an individual. One’s personal data from social media or any other online forum can be accessed from anywhere in the world with the click of a button. This update, even though is limited to group messages only, is a good step towards giving the users the privacy they need. Many will counter that this will introduce more scams as Telegram has been a hub of Crypto related scams while that is true the positive impact is far greater. All in all, the anonymous admin update by Telegram is a step in the right direction.