This is why Apple held up Telegram's App Store update for two weeks
Last week, the CEO of messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, posted a message to his Telegram channel which said, "For example, our upcoming update – which is about to revolutionize how people express themselves in messaging – has been stuck in Apple's "review" for two weeks, without explanation or any feedback provided by Apple." The day after Durov's post, Apple finally allowed the update to proceed but with a caveat.
On Friday, according to Engadget, Durov wrote a new Telegram post following Apple's approval explaining that while the update is full of emoji-related features, one was blocked by Apple. The CEO explained, "After extensive media coverage of my previous post, Apple got back to us with a demand to water down our pending Telegram update by removing Telemoji — higher quality vector-animated versions of the standard emoji."
Durov added that "This is a puzzling move on Apple’s behalf, because Telemoji would have brought an entire new dimension to its static low-resolution emoji and would have significantly enriched their ecosystem." The executive shared a video of what the Telemoji would look like. It's possible that Apple felt since the emoji design used for Telegram's Telemoji resembled Apple's, the crew in Cupertino concluded that the animated versions of Telegram's emoji would not be kosher.
More updates are coming to Telegram in a few weeks Durov stated, and with 700 million active users the messaging app added a Telegram Premium service for $4.99 per month that adds the ability to upload and use custom emoji in chats, privacy settings for voice messages, the ability to gift a Telegram premium subscription, and more. Premium users get access to 10 initial custom emoji packs totaling more than 500 Premium emoji. Many more are coming.
This isn't the first time that Apple has blocked Telegram from updating the app. Twp years ago, almost to the day, we told you that Apple blocked Telegram from pushing through an update that added end-to-end encryption to video chat. While the update was submitted first to the App Store, it turned out that Android users got the first crack at using it since Google approved the update before Apple did.
Telegram is available from the App Store for iOS and iPadOS users, and the Google Play Store for Android users.
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