Telegram founder Pavel Durov once again criticized Apple on the public channel of his platform, this time he said that Apple deliberately limited the functionality of network applications (Web App), which affected the online version of Telegram.
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While the Telegram app is available on the App Store, the platform has faced some issues in the past during Apple’s censorship process as Telegram’s public channels have no content restrictions. To get around some of these limitations, Telegram also offers a full web version of the app that has almost the same functionality as the mobile version but is also limited on iOS.
Durov noted that multiple developers have complained that “Safari is killing the web” due to limitations in Apple’s Safari browser. He also cited an April article by Telegram web developers that listed 10 issues with Safari for iOS, including a lack of push notifications, VP8 and VP9 codecs, high refresh rates, and visual artifacts, among other functions.
In Durov’s view, Apple’s purpose of “crippling” web apps is to force users to download apps from the App Store so that the company can take a 30% commission from developers.
Unlike macOS, iOS does not allow developers to choose a different network engine for their applications, and every application that requires a network implementation must use Apple’s WebKit. Apple limits the functionality of web apps compared to native apps.
Last week, the U.K. government concluded after a year-long study that Apple “limited the differentiation potential of rival browsers from Safari”. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) believes the restrictions “suppress” the ability of web apps to run on iPhone and iPad devices.
While no decision has been made, the UK government is now considering launching another antitrust investigation into Apple. It’s worth mentioning that iOS 16 addresses some of these limitations and now supports web push notifications.
