Telegram Just Made It Easier to Farm Crypto Games Like ‘Hamster Kombat’

Popular messaging app Telegram is in the midst of a crypto gaming phenomenon, spurred by tap-to-earn games like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat that have pulled in millions upon millions of players to their “mini apps.” And now Telegram has made it easier for players to hop between several such games via its iOS and Android apps.

On Tuesday, Telegram announced that it has launched a “mini app bar” feature for its mobile apps, enabling multitasking by letting users rapidly switch between multiple open mini apps. This applies to all types of apps built for the platform, including the Telegram Wallet bot and numerous games.

The feature lets users collapse Telegram mini apps into a handy bar at the bottom of the screen, so users can bounce between chats, apps, and games.

“The recent Telegram update revolutionizes how people interact with mini apps,” Telegram co-founder and CEO Pavel Durov wrote in his personal channel. “Now people can collapse apps and switch between them. In the future, this new bottom bar will also store web pages and other content for later reading.”

Telegram says that more than 500 million users are now interacting with mini apps, which include a growing mountain of games tied to current or upcoming crypto tokens. The service previously claimed some 900 million total users, suggesting that over half of users have tapped and swiped through apps built with the native Telegram framework.

Much of that surge appears to be driven by viral crypto games, including Notcoin, which kicked off the tap-to-earn trend on the messaging platform earlier this year—and Hamster Kombat, which claims to have more than 200 million users as it sees rapid growth and adoption ahead of plans to debut a token on The Open Network (TON).

With the new feature, Telegram users can more easily bounce between multiple games to tap away at their screens, claim daily login rewards, and more. Other notable Telegram games on the rise include Yescoin, Catizen, PixelTap, TapSwap, W-Coin, and Gemz.

Hamster Kombat’s official Telegram channel noticed that Durov’s posted image includes the buzzy crypto game.

“Looks like Pavel Durov was busy with new updates and just started playing Hamster Kombat!” the channel wrote. “Pavel, please, keep in mind that upgrading your cards and increasing profit per hour is more important than the coin balance!”

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.