In what year did Telegram add video calling?

Telegram added video calling in 2020. The feature arrived in August as one-to-one video calls for users on iOS and Android, extending Telegram’s existing voice-calling system.

Telegram had introduced voice calls in 2017, but video calling came later. The first version focused on private conversations rather than group meetings; group video chats were added in June 2021. That timeline is a common source of confusion, because some people remember 2021 as Telegram’s video-calling year.

The 2020 launch also reflected Telegram’s emphasis on call quality and privacy. Calls use end-to-end encryption, and Telegram said its system could learn technical details about calls to improve future quality. Video calls are separate from livestreams and group voice chats, which became additional features over time.

Thus, 2020 is the single canonical answer for Telegram’s initial video-calling release, while 2021 refers specifically to group video chats.