Encrypted messaging service Telegram launches a premium tier as it tops 700 million users

• Telegram, the encrypted messaging service, said it has reached 700 million active monthly users.
• The app also launched its premium tier subscription, priced between $5 and $6, based on location.

Telegram, the encrypted messaging service, announced on Sunday it has reached 700 million active monthly users and launched a new subscription tier for paid users.

"By subscribing to Telegram Premium, users unlock doubled limits, 4 GB file uploads, faster downloads, exclusive stickers and reactions, improved chat management – and a whole lot more," read the Telegram announcement.

Additional features include ad-free browsing, animated profile pictures, and voice-to-text capabilities.

The premium subscription price will vary based on location, though the Telegram announcement did not specify the exact cost and the company did not respond to Insider's request for comment. Tech Crunch reported that, for iPhone users in India, the premium version is priced at $6 and has a monthly cost of €5.49 ($5.77) in Spain.

Though the app is rolling out new, paid features, the Dubai-based company's CEO, Pavel Durov, assured users last week that free features would remain free and the company would maintain its privacy-focused approach.

"While our experiments with privacy-focused ads in public one-to-many channels have been more successful than we expected, I believe that Telegram should be funded primarily by its users, not advertisers," Durov wrote on Telegram on June 10, teasing the launch of the premium tier. "This way our users will always remain our main priority."