Telegram’s new Sponsored Messages is an advertising tool to promote your channel: How it works

Instant messaging platform Telegram on Friday announced Sponsored Messages, a new tool that will let users promote their channels and bots. Telegram states that users will only see sponsored messages in public channels that have more than 100 subscribers. Sponsored messages will have a limit of 160 characters and must be related to the topic of the channel in which they are shown. Telegram says it is currently testing the feature with a small portion of its userbase, with a wider rollout coming sometime later.

Telegram said it plans to share revenue with the owners of public channels. Many admins of one-to-many channels already post ads in the form of messages. The new tool will provide admins with a more streamlined way to promote their channels and bots. In December last year, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said that the company plans to launch its own advertising platform for public one-to-many channels.