Telegram is a popular instant messaging app known for protecting users’ privacy while providing the same features as WhatsApp. Telegram apps are available for all major platforms. The company also has a web version of the app that one can open in any web browser.
The Telegram web version is available on web.telegram.org. But Telegram recently launched two more versions of the web app called Telegram WebZ and Telegram WebK.
Telegram WebZ and WebK have a different interface than the older web version of Telegram Web. Below you can see the interface difference between the older version and the new version of Telegram WebZ.
And here is a side-by-side comparison between Telegram WebZ and Telegram WebK.
As you can see a big between the old version of the Telegram web app and the newly launched WebZ. But two newly launched Telegram web apps are almost clone of each other. Telegram WebZ and WebK are both developed by different teams. But we don’t clearly understand the purpose of creating two almost identical apps.
There are very few minor differences between the two apps.
Telegram WebZ & WebK May Target different regions
When I was logging into WebZ and WebK, I searched for my country ‘India’. In the WebZ version, when I searched ‘ind’ it gave me two results, Indonesia and India. In the WebK version, it gave me three results for the same query, British Indian Ocean Territory, India, and Indonesia.
I found out that in WebZ version of Telegram, there is no region called British Indian Ocean Territory.
So the reason of launching two identical apps for web browsers could be targeting different regions.
Also, notice the mute icon in the top right of the page of WebK. By default, WebK version muted the channel I had joined but WebZ did not mute any channel by default.
Besides this, you can notice very minor differences in the color palettes of the two apps. The search box’s background in WebZ is grey whereas in WebK it’s white.
When a user does not set a profile picture, Telegram creates a profile picture out of the user’s full name. It takes the first letter of first name & last name and creates the profile picture by combining the two letters. I noticed the WebZ version creates more accurate profile pictures than WebK. In some cases, WebK just added a random letter instead of the first letter of the last name.
Besides these, we can also notice a few other interface changes such as elements shadow and font-sizing.
No Calling Support
Recently, WhatsApp added calling support to its WhatsApp web version. It was expected that Telegram would release the calling feature for its web version. We got two new apps but both the apps have no calling support. It shows the apps are still in the early stage of development.