• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, November 25, 2016

The long-form online publishing space is getting crowded.

A new publishing platform from messaging app Telegram is putting an unusual spin on traditional publishing and distribution with its new “Telegraph” publishing tool. It allows users to post content without having to even create an account.

In typically offhand fashion, the upstart messaging app described Telegraph, available at telegra.ph, as “a publishing tool that lets you create rich posts with markdown, photos, and all sorts of embedded stuff.” That last category includes embedded video links from YouTube and Vimeo and insertions of tweets.

Indeed, Telegraph offers many of the same features as more established publish platforms, like Medium and Quip, but with an even more streamlined interface.

Among other things, its free access model allows users to begin a new post simply by visiting the Web site, creating their content and hitting publish. Content creators are invited to claim authorship for their pieces, but not required to, meaning they can publish anonymously or under pseudonyms if they wish.

One drawback of the free access model: Since there are no accounts, Telegraph doesn’t allow users to organize or store their content separately from their online existence, although you can still edit past posts provided cookies are enabled on the device where it was originally created.

There are no comments sections on articles, either.

According to Telegram, the messaging app has over 100 million accounts delivering over 12 billion messages per day, although it’s not clear what percentage of these are human users. The app has also been public about inviting users to create accounts powered by bots.

Telegram was founded in 2013 by Nikolai and Pavel Durov, the brothers who previously founded VKontakte, the most popular social network in Russia.