Telegram launches mini app store alongside new web3 browser

Telegram’s latest extension introduces an in-app browser feature that supports decentralized websites hosted on the Open Network.

Messaging app Telegram unveiled its new in-app browser in a blog post on July 31, adding it to the mini app store announced by CEO Pavel Durov earlier in July. With the new browser, Telegram’s approximately 950 million users will be able to browse TON Sites, a platform for building decentralized websites.

The platform was introduced in 2023 and allows users to set up a web server that makes these sites accessible on the Open Network blockchain. Initially, TON sites were accessible through specific entry points known as TON Proxies.

Telegram’s in-app browser | Source: Telegram

Durov says the browser comes with “all the bells and whistles” of a traditional web browser, allowing users to switch between web browsing and messaging. “This opens up the blockchain-based web to almost a billion users,” he said in an Aug. 1 post.

Apart from this, the Telegram mini app store is now live and can be accessed from the search section of the Telegram app. According to the announcement, 500 million of Telegram’s 950 million users who interact with mini apps every month will be able to access all their mini apps from a single place.

In addition, so-called “Stars”, a currency of payment within the mini-app ecosystem, can now be sent to friends. Introduced on June 7, the in-app token allows mini-apps to accept payments, and the tokens can then be exchanged for Toncoin (TON), the native token of the TON network.

Telegram mini-apps have seen great success, attracting millions of players globally with apps like Notcoin (NOT) and Hamster Kombat (HMSTR). Hamster Kombat, for example, has become one of the fastest-growing web3 apps, with over 300 million users since its launch in March 2024. Now, the project is preparing to launch what it calls the “largest airdrop in crypto history” for its HMSTR token, which will debut in TON.

Catizen, another mini-app that launched on Telegram alongside Hamster Kombat in March, has also reached over 500,000 paid users, prompting Hong Kong-based crypto venture firm HashKey Capital to invest in the app’s publisher, Pluto Studio.