Telegram has been bumped up to version 3.18.1 just days after the call-enabling 3.18 release was pushed out the door. Telegram 3.18 introduced a huge new feature for the app, voice calls, with one equally huge caveat, it was only available for European users. With 3.18.1, Telegram"s voice calls are now accessible to a wider audience that are located in Africa, as well as North and South America.
Telegram voice calls, whenever possible, are routed over peer-to-peer connections using audio codecs that are designed to save on bandwidth while providing “crystal-clear” quality. Failing to connect via p2p, Telegram will use the closest server to connect you to the person you"re calling in the “fastest way possible.”
An interesting aspect of the calling implementation is the use of AI, in their blog post, Telegram writes:
“Each time you make a Voice Call on Telegram, a neural network learns from your and your device"s feedback (naturally, it doesn"t have access to the contents of the conversation, it has only technical information such as network speed, ping times, packet loss percentage, etc.). The machine optimizes dozens of parameters based on this input, improving the quality of future calls on the given device and network... According to our tests, Telegram Calls are already superior to any of our competitors on comparable connections. But the quality of Telegram Calls will further improve as you and others use them, thanks to built-in machine learning.”
It"s probably not best to mention the AI aspect of calls to your less technical friends unless your aim is to conjure up images of Terminator.
Are you in one of the newly included areas where calls have been made available, do you plan to test them out? If so, you can grab the update at the link below. As of writing, the iOS version has not been updated on iTunes yet.
Source: Google Play