After introducing its Premium feature where users will be able to sell paid posts on their channels, Telegram shuts down the feature on iOS as the company received a complaint from Apple.

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An illustration picture taken through a magnifying glass on April 17, 2018 in Moscow shows the icon of the popular messaging app Telegram on a smart phone screen. - Russia's communications watchdog began today blocking access to the popular messaging app Telegram after a court banned the service for refusing to give the security services access to private conversations.

Disabling Paid Posts on iOS

Based on a report from Engadget, Telegram Chief Executive Officer Pavel Durov stated that the company had to shut down its Premium services due to a complaint from Apple. The company has no choice but not to disable this feature since Apple has complete control over its ecosystem. Durov described the situation as an abuse of a trillion-dollar monopoly to its market dominance for the reason of monetizing users' own content. 

The App Store tax requires a 15% or 30% commission to Apple while purchasing. Since Telegram uses a third-party payment method, Apple filed a complaint and was not happy with the situation as it felt like Telegram bypassed Apple's in-app purchases. These fees were heavily criticized before by several apps such as Spotify, publishers, and the most recent, Epic Games.

Durov hopes that regulators in the EU, India, and all over the world will step up with what Apple is doing to the market as it destroys the entrepreneurs' dreams with its App Store tax fees that are much higher than any government-levied VAT.

What's Next?

Telegram's paid feature was recently introduced in June and costs $5 monthly for a Premium subscription. 9To5Mac reported that this feature allows creators to charge people to view more exclusive content on their channel, which gives opportunities to some entrepreneurs. 

However, this was not yet launched to the public and is still being tested by several developers across the platform. While Telegram did not confirm this, the move of the app to use a third-party payment method was a strategy to really bypass the App Store's in-app purchases and not pay the tax fees for each sale.  

The CEO stated that the company has been working on other ways to continue their operations for creators who use iOS and is willing to help them to make money from their content without using Apple's restrictive ecosystem. 

Also Read: Telegram Officially Rolls Out Its Paid Feature, What to Expect

Telegram and Apple have been in a long-running battle when Durov criticizes Apple for having "obscure" rules to its App Store. MacRumors reported that the process for its App Store review has delayed Telegram to release an update to its app, causing the CEO to lash out. This update was aiming to "revolutionize how people express themselves in messaging."

Aside from the long process of review that lasted for two weeks, no communication was given from the company regarding the approval of the update during that time.

Days after, the update has been approved with the exception of approving Telegram's Telemoji, which is very similar to Apple's emoji. This was planned by Telegram to release during the update but as per Apple's App Store guidelines, it does not allow other applications to make an exact copy of their emojis.

Related Article: Apple vs. Telegram: App Store Finally Approves Its Major Update! Why Did it Took Long?

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Written by Inno Flores