Telegram is pushing a major upgrade to its fledgling Voice Chats feature, making unlimited Voice Chats available to all users while simultaneously removing the limit on participants.

The result is effectively limitless voice chatting in public and private channels, allowing any number of participants to actively converse in giant vocal chat groups.

The move pushes Telegram's Voice Chats 2.0 feature up alongside app-of-the-moment Clubhouse, vying to become a direct competitor to the popular iOS-only social chatting app.

Telegram Launches Voice Chats 2.0

As announced in a post on the Telegram Blog, Telegram is launching Voice Chats 2.0, upgrading its existing Voice Chats feature to enable more connections, to more people, in almost any Telegram channel.

Admins of channels and public groups can now host voice chats for millions of live listeners. No matter how popular your talk gets, new people will be able to tune in. It's like public radio reinvented for the 21st century.

Telegram channel administrators will have the option to launch a Voice Chat for channel subscribers. Once up and running, any subscribers in the channel will have the option to join the Voice Chat.

But it doesn't have to become a messy free-for-all with users talking over one another. Voice Chats 2.0 will also introduce the option for admins to control the conversation better, keeping users muted until it is their turn to talk. If you want to talk, participants can use the raise your hand to speak option to notify the admin.

The upgraded Telegram Voice Chats 2.0 will also allow in-channel voice recording for future playback. For the privacy-conscious, a red light will display alongside any participants recording the call, helping you keep track of who is recording the conversation.

Related: Useful Telegram Features You Should Be Using Right Now

Telegram has made it easier to send voice chat links, too. Owners of public or private channels can now create unique links that open the voice chat directly, rather than just an invite to a channel where a conversation is taking place.

Can Telegram's Unlimited Voice Chats Cause Clubhouse Consternation?

Telegram isn't making a big deal of its Voice Chats 2.0 upgrade, but it's pretty clear that it has one target in mind: Clubhouse.

The voice-only social media platform has taken the world by storm and has racked up millions of iOS users in its short lifespan. With the development team working hard to produce an Android version of the app, it won't take long for those numbers to skyrocket.

Telegram is a trusted name in secure messaging apps and regularly features as one of the best private messaging options. Which is precisely where Clubhouse is weak, with the app's privacy settings and features frequently called into question.

Related: Clubhouse Promises to Fill in Security Gaps Following Breach

Striking at this potential vulnerability in Clubhouse's structure could work well for Telegram, not least because it already has hundreds of millions of users, many of whom are very loyal to the platform.