Ever since Apple launched the App Retailer, builders large and small have gotten caught up in the firm’s approval course of and had their apps delayed or eliminated altogether. The favored messaging app Telegram is simply the latest, in keeping with the firm’s CEO Pavel Durov. On August tenth, Durov posted a message to his Telegram channel saying the app’s latest update had been caught in Apple’s assessment course of for 2 weeks with none actual phrase from the firm about why it was held up. 

As famous by The Verge, the update was lastly launched yesterday, and Durov once more took to Telegram to debate what occurred. The CEO says that Apple informed Telegram that it must take away a new characteristic known as Telemoji, which Durov described as “greater high quality vector-animated variations of the commonplace emoji.” He included a preview of what they’d seem like in his publish — they’re just like the primary emoji set Apple makes use of, however with some fairly pleasant animations that actually may assist make messaging a little extra expressive. 

“That is a puzzling transfer on Apple’s behalf, as a result of Telemoji would have introduced a complete new dimension to its static low-resolution emoji and would have considerably enriched their ecosystem,” Durov wrote in his publish. It is not fully clear how this characteristic would enrich Apple’s general ecosystem, but it surely nonetheless looks like fairly the puzzling factor for Apple to get caught up over, particularly since Telegram already has a host of emoji and sticker choices that go far past the default set present in iOS. Certainly, Durov famous that there are greater than 10 new emoji packs in the latest Telegram update, and stated the firm will take the time to make Telemoji “much more distinctive and recognizable.”

There are nonetheless a lot of emoji-related enhancements in the latest Telegram update, although. The corporate says it’s launching an “open emoji platform” the place anybody can add their very own set of emoji that individuals who pay for Telegram’s premium service can use. Should you’re not a premium consumer, you may nonetheless be capable of see the custom-made emoji and take a look at utilizing them in “saved messages” like reminders and notes in the app. The customized emoji may be interactive as properly — if you happen to faucet on them, you may get a full-screen animated response. 

To make it simpler to entry all this, the sticker, GIF and emoji panel has been redesigned, with tabs for every of these response classes. This makes the iOS keyboard match up with the Android app in addition to the net model of Telegram. There are additionally new privateness settings that allow you to management who can ship you video and voice messages: everybody, contacts or nobody. Telegram notes that, like its different privateness settings, you’ll be able to set “exceptions” in order that particular teams or individuals can “all the time” or “by no means” ship you voice or video messages. The new update — sans Telemoji — is out there now.