Apple held up Telegram’s latest update over emojis, here’s why – Times of India

Earlier this week, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov wrote a post on his Telegram channel criticising Apple’s app review update process. Durov said that without any explanation Apple had held up the app’s recent update. “For example, our upcoming update – which is about to revolutionise how people express themselves in messaging – has been stuck in Apple’s ‘review’ for two weeks, without explanation or any feedback provided by Apple.”
A report by The Verge states that Durov in his recent post explained why Apple held up the update for two week. “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 further said that he found the move “puzzling 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.”
Apple has now approved the latest Telegram update. However, the latest version does not include the animated emoji pack. It is not clear why Telegram dropped the emoji pack as Durov didn’t give an explanation. Apple too hasn’t commented on the matter so far.
Durov, however, said that Telegram will be motivated to make Telemoji more unique and recognisable. The emojis in question are meant for premium Telegram users. Telegram has rolled out a lot of new features for its users with the recent update.
Durov was critical about Apple in his earlier post. “If Telegram, one of the top 10 most popular apps globally, is receiving this treatment, one can only imagine the difficulties experienced by smaller app developers. It’s not just demoralising: it causes direct financial losses to hundred of thousands of mobile apps globally.” He further said that the “economic damage inflicted by Apple on the tech industry won’t be undone”.