Telegram update leaves some older iPhone users unable to open the app

Telegram’s latest iOS update appears to have broken the app for a chunk of users on older iPhones. Since the update rolled out, several people are reporting that the app crashes the moment it launches, before they even get the chance to log in.

From what I can tell, reports are coming in from users running iOS 15.4.1 and iOS 16.7.15, mostly on iPhone X and similar older hardware. One person on Reddit said the app crashes “instantly” after trying to log in.

Others in the same thread confirmed the same thing on iOS 16.7.15, with one user noting they tried a hard reset, reinstalling the app, and everything else they could find online. Nothing worked.

An X user also reported the same problem, specifically on iOS 16.7.15, in the comments of a post from Telegram.

The timing lines up with a big feature push Telegram announced yesterday. The update brings a privacy-focused AI text editor, advanced poll options including revoting, support for looping Live and Motion photos, and a bunch of other additions. Somewhere in that rollout, something seems to have gone sideways for users on older software.

One theory floating around in the Reddit thread is that Telegram quietly dropped support for older iOS versions. Plausible, but not totally convincing. Telegram’s App Store page still lists the minimum requirement as iOS 13.0 or later, so from what I can tell, this is more likely a bug than an intentional cutoff.

Plus, this isn’t the first time that we’ve seen apps break on older versions in the past few months. Back in January, Instagram users with iPhones on iOS 16.x versions also ran into similar problems with the app.

Telegram hasn’t said anything publicly about the crashes so far.

If you’re on an older iPhone and hitting this, there’s no reliable fix circulating yet. So the best thing to do right now is to wait it out. Be on the lookout for any updates for the Telegram app on the App Store.

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