Apple held up Telegram’s latest update over emoji - The Verge

Telegram released a new update on Friday just one day after Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov said the update had been in Apple’s app review for two weeks without explanation. According to Durov, Apple requested the removal of a new feature called Telemoji.

Telegram released a new update on Friday, just one day after Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov said the update had been in Apple’s app review for two weeks without explanation. The update is packed with emoji-related features, but one is missing because Apple specifically requested its removal, according to Durov.

“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 wrote on his Telegram channel on Friday. “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.”

You can see the Telemoji in a short video included with Durov’s post (and I’ve made a GIF of the video he shared). Personally, I think the Telemoji look like a lot of fun. I love how they add some life to static emoji faces I’ve gotten quite familiar with. But I’m guessing Apple took issue with another company modifying its designs in this way, which might be why it asked Telegram to remove Telemoji from the update. Apple and Telegram didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/12/23303446/telegram-update-apple-emoji-telemoji

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