Telegram testing pay-to-view posts, skirts Apple payment system

Telegram is now testing a feature that would allow users to charge others to view certain messages — but it currently uses its own payment system instead of Apple's.

In June 2022, Telegram announced that it would offer a premium service for users. Premium users would get faster download speeds, be able to send larger files, and could follow more channels.

Now, the company seems to want to add a new monetization feature — paid posts. Matt Navarra has shown that Telegram has already begun quietly testing this feature on a few channels.

While the feature hasn't been officially announced, it does seem to exist on multiple Telegram platforms — including iOS. And, as 9to5Mac points out, it skirts Apple's in-app payment system.

Instead, the feature uses Telegram's own payment system, which means that the company can skirt paying Apple's 30% in-app commission fee.

It's likely that Apple is currently unaware of the feature, as it violates the App Store guidelines.

This isn't the first time Telegram has violated rules Apple has set. In August, Telegram's CEO claimed that Apple delayed an update that would "revolutionize how people expressed themselves in messaging."

As it turned out, the update was held up over iOS-inspired animated emoji. Apple allowed the update after developers removed the animated emoji based on Apple's designs.