Bugs and Suggestions

Hm, I guess that makes sense. From the standpoint of Telegram it's going to be convenient if they let you pick your channel's theme (tech / gardening / etc) and then supply you with ads of a certain value.

Zoro ➡️ FurDu '26

The problem with advertising is that to make advertising attractive to someone who wants to run ads, you need to collect data so that you can target specific demographics otherwise the ads are significantly less value. It's the ol slippery slope argument I know, but I have a marketing background and I've consistently watched social platforms perverted by this issue. I don't want telegram profiling me or selling that data to anyone, even if the data is anonymised, half the point is that it doesn't do that. Im all for subscription models like discord, but ads in my messaging platform are just a hard nah.

Interesting. Well, like I said, I'm perfectly fine with paying to not see ads, too.

As for profiling, does a toggle "Do not show personalized ad experience" have any chance of working?

Zoro ➡️ FurDu '26 Dec 10, 2021

sudoLife

Yeah, disabling the personalisation of ads is always going to be a requirement for any service that does it, but it'll still catch people who don't know better as it'll probably be on by default.

I've been considering it further, and I'm sure Ads in telegram could be executed in a thoughtful user-centric way, I'm just worried that opening the door to advertising in a small way now will mean that long-term, these sorts of considerations will get tossed aside in favour of increased bottom line.

I'd much rather a regular subscription be attached to unlocking additional features as it motivates new feature development. If you're selling additional features under a subscription, you'll always be looking to make your subscription features better. I'd more than happily pay 5-20 bucks+ a month for turbo/vip/channel upgrades etc.

Archie 32x Dec 10, 2021

Definitely agree

Uriel Luviano Dec 10, 2021

As far as I understood from Durov's post, the ads are based on the channel theme, not on the user's profile. I think giving the channel's owner and/or users a feedback button to stop seeing certain kind of ads would also go a long way.

Deer Spangle ️ Dec 10, 2021

I run a channel and occasionally see my posts forwarded to some really distasteful places. This new ad feature has me really worried that now those places are going to be jamming adverts into my channel :(
Having an option to review and approve ads before they go in my channel would be excellent, even if I were required to approve a set minimum quantity of ads overall

Eduardo Cardona Dec 10, 2021

Consider a yearly fee as an option to not get advertisement

Chelle 🐾🖤🎩 Dec 10, 2021

Eduardo Cardona

I'd be happy with this. Or even month to month as a secondary option

Laura Dec 10, 2021

There is a serious possibility people could switch to other ad-free messaging providers. It would be a true shame given all it's been invested to make people realize how important Telegram is for privacy matters. Especially given ads eventually always end up needing data collection for targeting.

katrick "baizuo baddie" bateman, clippy comrade, ten tonne terror of tel aviv & CEO @ kinetic meat concepts LLC Dec 10, 2021

Ads WILL necessitate the relaxation of data harvesting. I have been using this app in some capacity for something like 8 years now, and I'm not optimistic about this change.

I use the app to text people. In an attempt to flex on discord, twitch, instagram and other vaguely related services, however, the app has been letting out poorly planned updates with a slew of bad features or, at least, terribly executed features. Like, the "post as channel" in public groups is a mountain of a mess alone, but that's not my point here.

To make a long story short, Telegram is heading toward selling out. I'm calling it here. They're starting to make the app HARDER to use, navigate, and manage to make features that rival their "competitors" and it's probably been leading up to this to begin with: the next step on a slippery slope we've been going down for a while.

But this? Now? No. I get that devs need to eat, but if the plan is to just f*ck over the users and sell out, I'm not paying for this sh*t and I'm not allowing my channels to generate ad revenue for an app on the road to betray its foundations, and us.

This is not the attitude that got Telegram where it is.

katrick "baizuo baddie" bateman, clippy comrade, ten tonne terror of tel aviv & CEO @ kinetic meat concepts LLC

*rather, ads will necessitate the relaxation of telegram's anti-data-harvesting appeals, whether now or later.

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