Mini Apps 2.0: Full-Screen Mode, Home Screen Icons, Geolocation and 10 more features

We launch the largest update in the history of mini apps. They get a full-screen mode, subscription plans, home screen shortcuts, sending gifts, sharing media, creating documents, access to geolocation, motion tracker, setting emoji statuses — and more.

Mini apps are now able to use the entire screen in portrait or landscape orientation — allowing apps to host more game genres with expanded gestures and interfaces.

Mini apps are able to receive information about the motion of your device to add unique controls to games or build immersive VR experiences.

Developers can lock the screen orientation to ensure there is no unnecessary rotation if their app uses device motion for controls.

You can now place direct shortcuts to specific mini apps on the home screen of your device — accessing your favorite games and services in one tap.

You can now share your location with mini apps — which gives developers the ability to make location-based games with points of interest or interactive maps for events.

Access to location data is disabled by default — you must specifically give location permissions to each individual mini app with which you’d like to share this data.

Apps can now use their stars to send you gifts as rewards to celebrate achievements.

We’ve also added a new privacy setting that lets you control who can send you gifts that will appear on your profile.

With this update, Telegram Premium users can set emoji statuses from inside mini apps, showing others that they’re in a game or a taxi .

Mini apps can integrate APIs from other services — instantly updating a user’s emoji status when they start playing music , open a book or turn on a movie .

Apps with location permissions could also be used to update your status when you’re at work or out of the office .

Developers can also create their own custom emoji packs to offer as status options, adding to the viral potential of mini apps.

You can now share media directly from mini apps — sending referral codes, custom memes and more to any chat.

Mini apps can also create media for you to post to your stories.

Mini apps can also generate documents and files which you can download — such as AI-generated profile pictures or audio files.

Developers are able to offer subscriptions to their mini app using Telegram Stars — monetizing their efforts with multiple tiers of content and features.

Telegram Stars earned from digital products and subscriptions can be used to increase message limits for the app or claim rewards.

Developers are also eligible to earn rewards from Telegram Ads in bots and mini apps.

Developers can further customize the loading screen of their mini app in @BotFather — adding their own icon and specific colors that will be displayed before the app starts loading.

To better optimize graphics and increase performance, mini apps can access basic hardware info about your device, such as its processing power and memory capacity — then automatically adjust settings to provide the smoothest experience.

Developers can now know when their mini app is minimized and restored from the app bar and make sure they handle transitions correctly.

If you are a developer, see this page for detailed documentation and the full list of changes, including an easier way for mini apps to access profile pictures and support for third-party validation of mini app data.

Everyone can already try out early implementations of some of the new features in apps like @playdeckbot, @tverse and @major (the Major Maze game on the Games tab).

That’s all for today’s update. We’re already working on the next big thing for mini apps and beyond.