🆕 Telegram Contests Update

We are happy to announce three competitions scheduled for the current year. Make sure to enable notifications for @contest so you don’t miss the contest task and further details we will be publishing in the coming days.

01.12 – 📱 Contest for Designers
05.12 – 🎨 Artists Competition
Dec 2025 – iOS Contest

🐣 It happened. Our decentralized confidential compute network, Cocoon, is live. The first AI requests from users are now being processed by Cocoon with 100% confidentiality. GPU owners are already earning TON. The website https://cocoon.org is up, with documentation and the source code.

🤔 Centralized compute providers such as Amazon and Microsoft act as expensive intermediaries that drive up prices and reduce privacy. Cocoon solves both the economic and confidentiality issues associated with legacy AI compute providers.

🚀 Now we scale. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be onboarding more GPU supply and bringing in more developer demand to Cocoon. Telegram users can expect new AI-related features built on 100% confidentiality. Cocoon will bring control and privacy back where they belong — with users. 🤖

🏆 Design Contest 2025

Prize fund: $50,000 or more
Deadline: 23:59 Dubai time @ December 15, 2025
Who can participate: Everyone

📱 Telegram announces its most epic Design Contest, where top prize winners will each secure $10,000 and may also get a chance to join the Telegram Design Team.

THE TASK

Design a concept for Telegram Nodes entirely from the ground up, while preserving the familiar components of Telegram’s interfaces. It must feel seamless and aesthetically compelling while remaining clear and intuitive for users.

Nodes act as separate instances within the app that help users organize and streamline their communication flows – from personal to work. Nodes go far beyond simple chat folders or groups with topics enabled.

You may think of them as Discord-like servers or Slack-style workspaces that can contain multiple chat types, including voice and video chats, support in-depth admin management and user roles.

Users who join Telegram Nodes can set a profile picture, bio, and name that differ from their main account. They can then switch between Nodes and their main Telegram inbox – for example, via the left-side menu, which lists all their Nodes alongside any other Telegram accounts they’re logged into.

Your submissions must include:
1. A complete set of mockups for both the Android and iOS versions of the Telegram app.
2. A demo video for either platform in the same manner as the demonstrations from the Telegram Blog.

CORE REQUIREMENTS

• Clarity and usefulness are mandatory – everything must feel immediately understandable to users, leaving no room for confusion.
• Thoughtful feature engineering – the design should reflect an implementation-ready concept.
• All sides must be considered – you must deliver both the user and admin flows.
• A well-thought entry point and clear Nodes management are essential.
• Support for both day and night themes is mandatory.

Submission Format:

1) The layouts can be implemented as static .png files. For the animation demos, use .mp4 format (without sound).
Source files and properly structured Figma projects are also welcome.
2) For included videos, you must also provide several static .png images from each video that serve as a storyboard.
3) If you use complex animated icons, they must be in lottie json or .tgs format.

Further submission instructions will be announced closer to the deadline.

🎨 Telegram Contest for Artists

Total prize pool: Up to $50,000
Deadline: 23:59 @ Dec 31, 2025 (Dubai time)

📱 Telegram announces a new contest for artwork creators.

THE TASK

🎁 – create unique vector-based appearances of the following Collectible Gift. To get a better idea of Gift Collections and their different models, you may browse the existing sets in Settings → Send Gift → Collectibles.

Proceed with either:

Option A
Prepare vector artwork and animate it using Adobe After Effects. Submit each gift model as an .aep file. You will find a reference file attached below this message.

Option B
Prepare static vector artwork with Adobe Illustrator. Submit each gift model as an .ai file.

We will reward you with up to $500 for each gift model you create. You may submit as many as you like, provided their quality and visual appeal match or exceed those of our existing gifts.

Submission Guidelines:

You must submit your models as .tgs + .aep files for animated and .png + .ai files for static artwork respectively. You may additionally place your models into a single sticker pack.

Further instructions will be announced closer to the deadline.

🏆 iOS Contest 2025

Prize fund: Up to $50,000
Deadline: 23:59 Dubai time on December 26, 2025
Who can participate: Everyone

📱 Telegram is hosting a contest for iOS developers to bring Liquid Glass effects to older versions of iOS.

THE TASK

Implement custom versions of some of the Liquid Glass effects and the relevant interface flows into Telegram for iOS so these appearances work on iOS 18 and older.

You must precisely replicate the animations and look and feel (highlight on tap, scale-up, bounce, and stretching) on the glass elements. This applies in particular to:

– The tab bar
Omit background blur behind the bar itself, while preserving the glass lenses’ ability to blur the bar’s own content.

– Buttons
This includes attach menu icon, voice and video message recording buttons, etc.

– Switches and sliders
Only the moving element itself should apply blur.

Contest Requirements:

– Support for iOS 18 is mandatory.
– No third-party UI frameworks or new dependencies are allowed.
– The submission must be consistent with the existing Telegram for iOS codebase. You may reuse what is already included in the app's codebase.
– Changes must not negatively affect performance, memory usage, or app stability.

Evaluation:
During the evaluation stage, submissions will be tested on a broad range of devices and iOS versions (13-26). In addition to aesthetic accuracy and appeal, we will evaluate:
– Performance;
– Memory consumption;
– Battery impact.

Submissions:

We will announce detailed submission instructions closer to the deadline. The final submission must be your implementation integrated into Telegram for iOS, not a standalone demo app.