Telegram can't do anything if Google and Apple threaten to remove its app from the stores. On Android they've started promoting sideloading the app for a while

Telegram can't do anything if Google and Apple threaten to remove its app from the stores. On Android they've started promoting sideloading the app for a while already, but that's not an option for Apple devices sadly. They've restored the bot functionality for accounts that are registered with non-Russian phone numbers though.