Telegram Contests

🏆 Telegram Android Contest 2024, Round 2: Results

In this Round, the contestants were invited to upgrade the interface of the existing in-chat camera and enhance it with the features from the Stories.

The judges greatly enjoyed the testing stage, taking thousands of photos, recording countless videos, and making more collages than they ever had before (and likely never would again). We would like to thank everyone for their contribution!

The core criteria we initially applied during evaluation was app performance. Each submission was tested on a high-performance device to ensure that the changes introduced by the contestants did not compromise the app's smoothness. This particular aspect proved to be quite challenging for the majority of contestants.

The rest we evaluated was the amount and quality of the features implemented, as specified in the contest task.

Please meet the winners!

1st PLACE – $7,000
🥇Earnest Pug

2nd PLACE – $4,500
🥈Dreamy Crab
🥈Holy Shark
🥈Huge Fox

3rd PLACE – $2,500
🥉Slim Gull
🥉Earnest Wasp
🥉Daring Whale
🥉Fairy Zebra
🥉Mighty Rabbit
🥉Huge Falcon
🥉Hardy Turkey
🥉Fit Rhino

4th PLACE – $1,500
🎖Grim Mule
🎖Mighty Fly
🎖Fierce Bull
🎖Young Beetle
🎖Fit Shark
🎖Sleek Ladybird
🎖Keen Ant

✍️ To justly recognize all notable submissions, we will announce the results on January 6th, 2025, considering the initially extended deadline for contestants.

🏆 We would like to thank every developer and designer who participated in our competitions in 2024. We hope you gained valuable experience and refined your skills.

✨ We are excited to host more interesting, challenging, and rewarding contests in 2025.

Stay tuned!

🏆 Telegram iOS Contest 2024: Results

We appreciate your patience as we evaluated the results of this contest. The complex task and the initial requirements we outlined proved to be challenging to the majority of contestants.

Out of a total of 23 entries, 7 were disqualified for introducing changes that broke the application build process.

After confirming that the remaining apps could be built and included the features outlined in the contest task, we proceeded to the testing stage.

After many hours of testing and cross-checking the submissions, we discovered that only 4 out of the remaining 16 apps were able to play the HLS streams. Unfortunately, the approach used in these apps is far from optimal and, as a result, cannot be used.

Since we were also working on the same task under the release cycle with an even tighter deadline, here’s the approach currently used in the iOS app:

We use bridging to connect the JavaScript implementation of HLS and the native code. For rendering, we created a player compatible with Media Source Extensions.

After evaluation, we have decided to split the prize fund in half and increase the total prize pool for Round 2 by an additional $25,000. Stay tuned for updates in Q1 2025.

Meet the winners!

2nd PLACE – $6,500
🥈Classy Whale
🥈Bold Wasp

3rd PLACE – $3,000
🥉 Tall Penguin
🥉 Subtle Cow

We have also decided to award 12 other contestants a bonus of $500 for their contributions, and we hope to see them in the prize-winning spots next time. (More details and check if you are on the list – on contest.com)

ContestBot will begin accepting submissions for the Android Contest 2024, Round 2 later today.

New deadline: 23:59 on December 22nd (Dubai time)

We are extending the deadline to ensure all contestants have enough time to properly adjust both package id and api_id for their apps.

If you are a first-time participant, set aside at least 2-3 hours for this stage and ensure your app can be installed alongside official apps and does not break basic functions like login.

Start the bot later today, choose “Android Contest 2024 R2”, answer the bot’s questions, then send:

- An .apk file (release build). Make sure your code is using your own package id.
- A link to the commit on a public GitHub repository, forked from the Telegram-Android repository.

Note: Your repository may stay private until the deadline. Entries that are not using their own package id will be penalized.

🏆 Telegram Android Contest 2024, Round 2

Prize fund: $50,000
Deadline: 23:59 on December 21st (Dubai time)
Who can participate: Everyone, even if you didn't join Round 1
Results: December 2024

Telegram is hosting a contest for Android developers to enhance and upgrade the in-chat camera.

THE TASK

Adapt the existing in-chat camera with the camera for Stories, including all its features:
– Collages;
– Dual Camera Mode;
– Front Camera Flash;
– Widgets (for interactive widgets, i.e., reactions or links, your app may just apply a non-interactive entity over the canvas)...

Your implementation must remove any story-related restrictions or controls. Specifically, your app must not impose a limit on video length and should exclude interface controls that are only relevant for stories. Your app must retain the existing in-chat camera interface and flow before user opens the camera (i.e., the preview within the attachment menu).

Contest Requirements:

General
– Your app must provide a consistent and smooth recording experience that aligns with the device's native camera app.
– No third-party UI frameworks are allowed.
– The submission must be consistent with the existing Telegram for Android codebase.
– The app's stability and performance must not be affected with the changes you made.
– The app must be free of significant flaws (including crashes, visual glitches, noticeable element blinking, layout errors, and more).

❗️Your app must precisely follow the provided design mockups.

Note:
Submissions that introduce improvements to video recording are likely to receive higher scores in this contest.

Evaluation:
During the evaluation stage, we will review your code and test the submission on a wide range of Android devices.

Winners may be offered a chance to join the 🛫 Telegram Team.

Submissions:
Contestants will be able to submit their entries to @ContestBot at a later date. We will further clarify the submission instructions closer to the deadline.

🏆 The second round of Android Contest 2024, with a total prize fund of $50,000, will be announced this Friday. The winner may also be offered an opportunity to join the 🛫 Telegram Team.

Everyone is welcome to participate, even if they didn't join Round 1.

🏆 Telegram Android Contest 2024, Round 1: Results

We were pleased to see many veterans from our previous contests for Android Developers to join us in this round together with several newcomers! We hope this was a fun yet challenging experience for all of you.

In this contest, developers were required to implement several features into the Android app under a tight deadline. While evaluating submissions, we primarily assessed how well each app delivered two core features for this contest: the Quick Share feature in channels and Chromecast support.

Meet the winners!

1st PLACE – $8,000
🥇 Dreamy Crab

2nd PLACE – $5,000
🥈 Slim Gull
🥈 Hardy Turkey

3rd PLACE – $3,000
🥉 Sunny Ant
🥉 Huge Fox
🥉 Fairy Zebra
🥉 Mighty Rabbit
🥉 Holy Shark

4th PLACE – $1,500
🎖 Fit Falcon
🎖 Young Beetle
🎖 Large Kangaroo
🎖 Hairy Frog
🎖 Groovy Rhino
🎖 Slim Scorpion
🎖 Huge Falcon
🎖 Fit Rhino

As an exception and a final warning, we have waived the rebuilding penalty this time considering we have several newcomers. Stricter guidelines and more severe penalties will be introduced for future competitions.

We have also decided to award 10 other contestants a bonus of $500 for their contributions, and we hope to see them in the prize-winning spots next time. (More details and check if you are on the list – on contest.com)

That's all for today! More contests are on the way. Have a nice Sunday!

🏆 October Contests Update

Dear Contestants,

Here is the results schedule for the recent contests we held:

Design Competition, Round 2: Next Week

🆕 iOS Contest 2024
🔤🔤🔤🔤🔤🔤🔤
(A significant portion of the submitted apps cannot be built as intended and require direct involvement from our side in order to properly assess each contribution. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. Each of such entries will be disqualified.)

Android Contest, Round 1: Today

ContestBot is now ready to accept submissions for the Telegram iOS Contest 2024.

New deadline: 23:59 on October 27th (Dubai time)

Start the bot, choose “Telegram iOS Contest 2024”, answer the bot’s questions, then send:
- A link to the commit on a public GitHub repository, cloned from the Telegram-iOS repository.

Note: Your repository may stay private until the deadline. Make sure your code is consistent with the reproducible builds process – we will build each app automatically. Entries failing to do so, will receive a relevant penalty.

🏆 Telegram Android Contest 2024, Round 1

Prize fund: $50,000
Deadline: 23:59 on October 28th (Dubai time)
Who can participate: Everyone
Results: November 2024

Telegram is hosting a contest for Android developers to implement new features into the app.

THE TASK

Implement the features in accordance with the mockups provided in the archive below:
– Add Quick Share for channel posts when you tap and hold the share button.
– Add Chromecast support for media playback.
– Add QR Share button for Invite links.
– Add a tooltip for bots' Start button.
– Introduce new flow for upcoming video chats.

Contest Requirements:

General
– No third-party UI frameworks are allowed.
– The submission must be consistent with the existing Telegram for Android codebase.
– The app's stability and performance must not be affected with the changes you made.
– The app must be free of significant flaws (including crashes, visual glitches, noticeable element blinking, layout errors, and more).

❗️Your app must precisely follow the provided design mockups.

Evaluation:
During the evaluation stage, we will review your code and test the submission on a wide range of Android devices.

Winners may be offered a chance to explore further cooperation opportunities with Telegram.

Submissions:
Contestants will be able to submit their entries to @ContestBot at a later date. We will further clarify the submission instructions closer to the deadline.

iOS Contest 2024 Update

Dear contestants,

We apologize for the inconvenience with @hls_samples. Please apply the following patch to continue your development.

Additionally, we have extended the contest deadline by 24 hours.

New Deadline: 23:59 on October 26th (Dubai time)

🏆 A new contest for Android developers with a total prize fund of $50,000 will be announced next Friday. The winner may be offered a chance to explore further cooperation opportunities with 🛫 Telegram.

It seems that many contestants misunderstood the task. We are happy to provide clarifications regarding the task requirements, which you will find below.

Q: Can AVFoundation / VideoToolbox / CoreVideo be used?
A: Yes, anything that doesn't use AVPlayer to handle HLS playback is allowed.

Q: Are third party libraries/frameworks allowed (e.g. ffmpeg)?
A: Yes, anything that doesn't use AVPlayer to handle HLS playback is allowed.

Q: What do you mean by "switching between available video streams"?
A: The ability to change between different quality levels or versions of the video based on factors like network bandwidth or user selection. The player should be able to automatically switch to the most appropriate stream depending on the network conditions, or allow the user to manually select a stream which they prefer.

Q: Are there any minimum technical requirements for a video player? Which features are prioritized?
A: Video playback must be hardware-accelerated.

Q: Do we need support for offline playback?
A: No.

Q: Is it necessary to replace something specific in the source code of Telegram iOS from AVPlayer to our self-written player or all?
A: You only need to replace the relevant code in HLSVideoContent.swift where the AVPlayer is used for handling HLS streams

Q: Which formats and codecs should be supported with HLS and video decoding?
A: fmp4 / H264 / AAC.

Q: Will there be any guidelines on how switching between available qualities should be implemented on the UI/UX part?
A: The UI is already implemented. Quality switching is handled here.

🏆 Telegram iOS Contest 2024

Prize fund: $50,000
Deadline: 23:59 on October 25th (Dubai time)
Who can participate: Everyone
Results: November 2024

Telegram is hosting a contest for iOS developers to build a media player from scratch.

The Task:
Implement a media player with support for HLS streaming (for both audio and video) into Telegram for iOS. The player must support both automatic and manual switching between available video streams, with automatic switching based on network bandwidth

Contest Requirements:
– Your media player must replace the AVPlayer currently used in the app.
– The final implementation must not cause any performance issues, app or media playback instabilities.
– Using a web view to render audio or video is prohibited. You may either implement everything in native code or use a hybrid solution, where data management is handled in JavaScript (via a web view or JavaScriptCore) and rendering is performed in native code.
– You may use hls.js as a reference.

For test media samples join @hls_samples.

Evaluation:
During the evaluation stage, we will review your code and test the submission under various conditions with multiple media on a range of iOS devices (iOS 12 – iOS 18).

Winners may be offered a chance to explore further cooperation opportunities with Telegram.

Submissions:
Contestants will be able to submit their entries to @ContestBot at a later date. We will further clarify the submission instructions closer to the deadline.

P.S. We will provide limited guidance for this contest, to request clarification send your questions with #ios2024 in @contests.