❤️ What does Telegram have in store for its birthday?

⚫️ It’s only Wednesday, but we’re already looking ahead to Friday. Telegram turns 13 on August 14 — the first version of the app launched on iOS on that day back in 2013.

⚫️ This year, the date is especially interesting for the TON community. In July, Pavel Durov promised the largest rollout of a non-custodial crypto wallet in history, saying that a native Gram Wallet would be coming to every Telegram app.

⚫️ Whether Gram Wallet actually drops on Telegram’s birthday is still an open question. There’s nothing in the public Android beta yet that looks like the new non-custodial wallet. Telegram could be saving it for the symbolic date, or just as easily push the release toward the end of August. Either way, the clock is ticking on Durov’s promised “this summer” timeline.

⚫️ Version 12.10 is also expected to bring a few other features. According to dataminer teleLakel, Rich Messages are getting button support, while groups and channels will get Welcome Messages — dedicated messages shown to users right after they join.

⚫️ But for us, Friday’s main story is still Gram Wallet. Back in May, ahead of TON’s birthday, we wondered whether Telegram might finally bring some new TON use cases directly into the app. TON didn’t get a birthday present that time, but three months later one may finally be on the way — this time for Telegram’s own birthday.

@thedailyton