Full-screen mini-apps, including games such as Doom, can run in either portrait or landscape orientations inside Telegram and include “expanded gestures and interfaces” to support more gaming genres. Like native mobile apps, mini-apps can now read your device’s processor and RAM information to optimize performance and support gyro controls.
Telegram’s additions show the company’s efforts to build an all-in-one super app like China’s WeChat, which have largely been impossible elsewhere due to policies from app store owners like Apple and Google.
Telegram mini-apps now also include features like the ability to generate downloadable documents and files, enable device location for things such as weather and mapping, and let developers monetize mini-apps with subscriptions (paid for by in-app Telegram Stars).
Finally, the sizable update also includes the ability to share media and referral codes from mini-apps to any chat, developers can customize loading screens, and premium users can set emoji statuses from inside mini-apps.