Instant messaging App, Telegram has announced that its users can now send and receive TetherUSD (USDT) from each other through chats for free.

The feature is made available through the Telegram Wallet bot, which allows users to buy, send, and receive digital assets.

A quick look into the Telegram Wallet bot by Investors King shows that USDT support has already been integrated into the App. TetherUSDT now joins the two other assets (BTC and TON) already supported by the Wallet bot. 

Users can buy Thether (USDT) seamlessly with their bank cards or through the dedicated P2P market without leaving the Telegram messaging application. With this, USDT stands to gain adoption from over 700 million monthly active users who chat with the messaging app.

In an announcement on its news channel, Telegram noted that “Sending USDT will be as easy as sending a photograph on Telegram”. 

It could be recalled that the developers of Telegram, Paul Dirov and Nikolai Durov officially started The Open Network (TON) initiative in 2018 with a vision to make blockchain transactions as easy as sending and receiving messages. But, the project received a backlash from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In April 2022, bitcoin (BTC) and toncoin (TON) were added to the Telegram wallet’s marketplace. TON is the native token of The Open Network. 

With this new development, some experts hold the opinion that Telegram is gradually making its way into the cryptocurrency realm. Such could trigger competition among social and messaging apps which could lead to more crypto adoption. 

Meanwhile, a global fashion brand, Guess, has stated that it will now be able to accept cryptocurrency payments in Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) in the Swiss city of Lugano. 

Customers will be able to buy clothing and accessories at the Guess boutique utilizing a POS system with Bitcoin and USDT.

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has rolled out a new feature on the platform to intensify group privacy.

This new feature according to WhatsApp is designed to give admins more control over who can join a group.

The company said, “Today we’re excited to roll out a few new changes we’ve made to make groups more manageable for admins and easier to navigate for everyone. As more people join communities, we want to give group admins more control over their group privacy, so we’ve built a simple tool that gives admins the ability to decide who is able to join a group. 

“When an admin chooses to share their group’s invite link or make their group joinable in a community, they now have more control over who can join. Groups are where people have some of their most intimate conversations and it’s important that admins are able to easily decide who can and cannot come in”.

With this new feature, admins can click an “X” or a checkmark to either reject or approve a user.

Also, WhatsApp has launched another feature that enables users the ability to see which groups they have in common with someone.

This feature comes in handy in larger groups and communities, where it can be difficult for users to remember which groups they are a part of. Users can now search for a contact’s name to see their groups in common, making it easier to navigate and stay connected with others.

“Whether you’re trying to remember the name of a group you know you share with someone or you want to see the groups you’re both in, you can now easily search a contact’s name to see your groups in common,’ WhatsApp said.

The two new features announced will start rolling out globally over the coming weeks. The launch of features comes a few months after WhatsApp launched Communities, a new feature offering larger, more structured discussion groups.

Launched in 2009, WhatsApp is a free application that can be used across different smartphone operating systems which includes; Apple, and Android as well as on computers and laptops.

The widespread use of mobile smartphones globally, along with better affordability of mobile data, has made it possible for many people across the world to use WhatsApp.

Since its launch in 2009, WhatsApp has become a social network that enables individuals to connect individually and collectively. In 2019, it had 1.5 billion users in 180 countries.

Investors King understands that the widely used messaging platform has no doubt transformed everyday communication at various levels, from the professional, educational, and interpersonal level.

Chinese short-form video TikTok has recorded an increase in monthly active users in the U.S. amid the ongoing pressure to ban the app in the country.

The social media giant on Monday disclosed that it now has 150 million monthly active users in the United States, up from 100 million that was recorded in 2020, which saw a 50 million additional increase of users.

TikTok is set to continue growing rapidly in users’ numbers and time spent on the app, as analysts predict that the number of U.S TikTok users is expected to grow to 88.7 million by 2024.

Meanwhile, the app has undergone a yearslong review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which could result in a ban of the app or a forced sale of the company’s U.S. operation.

It would be recalled that Investors King on the 17th of March 2023, had reported that the United States government has taken a hard stance towards TikTok, ordering the app to be sold or risk a ban as it seeks to resolve national security concerns.

The U.S. government demand is a significant move in President Biden’s administration towards TikTok, which has been under scrutiny for years over concerns that China could request vital users’ data from the app.

TikTok, however, expressed dissatisfaction at the U.S. government’s decision, which it claimed that its security proposal which involves storing American data in the United States offered the best protection for users without any breach of private information.

The social media platform further added that it has spent more than $1.5 billion on rigorous data security efforts, rejected spying allegations, and stated that if protecting national security is the objective, divestment doesn’t solve the problem and a change of ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access.

Meanwhile, U.S Senate Intelligence Committee chair Mark Warner who is a corresponding legislation to give the administration more powers to ban TikTok, stated that he did not think TikTok U.S data was safe despite the app’s claims. “This notional idea that the date can be made safe under (Chinese Communist Party) law, just doesn’t pass the smell test”, he added.

Concerns around TikTok heightened last year in December, when the social media platform’s parent company ByteDance, disclosed that it fired four employees who accessed data on two journalists from BuzzFeed News and the Financial Times while attempting to track down the source of a leaked report about the company.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify next week before the House energy and commerce committee about the company’s privacy and data security practices, as well as its relationship with the Chinese government.

If eventually TikTok is banned in the U.S., it would no doubt affect certain significant groups in the country, owing to the fact that the app is a major social influence. It is used broadly by students, content creators, journalists, etc.

It is also interesting to note that if the U.S. government moves to completely block the app, there is a possibility that the use of a VPN (a virtual private network) could provide access to the app. Still, the government could target VPN access to make the ban effective. Officials could “ban VPN use or compel VPN companies to have a blacklist of sites that they will not permit the flow of traffic to.