Telegram CEO Says Apple Was Jealous of Its New Animated Emoji

Who’d have thought animated emoji could be so controversial?

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov says(Opens in a new window) Apple refused to approve the latest version of the messaging app until a batch of animated emoji (which, to absolutely nobody’s surprise, Telegram refers to as Telemoji) were removed.

The problem appears to have been that Telegram built Telemoji on top of Apple’s emoji. While the emoji themselves are standardized, companies design their own interpretations of them, which is why they look different across platforms. Designing an animated version of the “grinning face” emoji is fine; using the “grinning face” emoji that Apple ships with iOS, macOS, etc. as the foundation for that animated emoji is not.

“After extensive media coverage of my previous post,” Durov says, “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. […] 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.”

Telegram compromised by removing the Telemoji based on Apple’s emoji from its app without giving up on the feature entirely. Durov says the company released 10 other “emoji packs” with the most recent version of Telegram for iOS, “together with the ability for any user to upload their own emoji,” so people should have plenty of animated emoji to choose from despite the last-minute decision to pull the contested designs.

Telemoji is available now to Telegram Premium subscribers. Telegram has also introduced(Opens in a new window) new privacy settings for voice messages; a new sticker, GIF, and emoji panel on iOS; and the ability to gift Premium subscriptions to other users with the latest update to its iOS app.