An image shared on Facebook claims encrypted messaging app Telegram announced Apple will remove its app from phones.

Verdict: False

There is no record of Telegram announcing Apple will delete the app from iPhones.

Fact Check:

The image alleging Telegram announced Apple will remove its app from iPhones includes screen grabs that supposedly show steps in the iPhone settings to prevent it from happening. Text in the image reads, “BREAKING – Telegram announced that Apple will remove the Telegram app from their phones without their joint notice. Telegram announced that to prevent this, apply the mentioned settings.”

The post’s claim, however, doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has not mentioned an upcoming move by Apple to that effect on his verified Telegram channel, nor has the app announced such a thing on its news blog. A spokesperson for Telegram also confirmed to Check Your Fact that the company has not announced that Apple is removing its app from the App Store.

Durov announced Sept. 20 that an update for Telegram “is out now after having been finally approved by Apple.” Apple hasn’t announced in any press releases that it will be removing Telegram from iPhones. Check Your Fact reached out to Apple for comment and will update this article if a response is provided.

The screen grabs of the various pages in iPhone settings that are visible in the Facebook post appear to show steps users can take to engage a certain parental control on the device.  The “Deleting Apps” control prevents children from being able to delete apps from an iPhone, according to Apple’s support website.

A support page on the Apple developer website states that if an app has been removed from the App Store, users who have downloaded it on their iPhones may still be able to use it. (RELATED: Did Denzel Washington Say ‘Democrat Elites’ Blackmailed Him For Liking Donald Trump?)

While there is no record of Telegram recently announcing Apple will remove its app from iPhones, the encrypted messaging app did get temporarily removed from the App Store in 2018 due to “inappropriate content,” The Verge reported. Following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the Coalition for a Safer Web, a non-profit group that seeks to combat online extremism, sued Apple, asking the company to remove Telegram from the App Store, The Washington Post reported.