Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage • Hacker News Board

Re: Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage

#161

Post by newscracker » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 2:27 PM UTC

FredFS456 wrote: post #148

jumbopapa wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd also like to mention that you can't use the desktop client standalone and Signal requires a phone number to sign up. It would be nice if they got rid of these requirements. I use Signal and Telegram both - it's clear to me that Telegram provides the better user experience. I like Signal from the privacy standpoint though. If you're using Android then I think that Signal is kind of a no-brainer to use because it d…

Whatsapp doesn't operate as a standalone client either.

The parent talked about signing up for Signal requiring a phone number. The following point is tangential from that after the signup is completed using a phone number. Signal Desktop is a standalone client that can be launched and used without having one's phone nearby or available or connected to the net. WhatsApp, however, requires the phone to be around and connected for the desktop app to send the chats through. From that perspective, WhatsApp actually offers a worse user experience than Signal.

Re: Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage

#162

Post by codedokode » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 2:27 PM UTC

newscracker wrote: post #146

mgw wrote: post #15

I understand Telegram's appeal because of its high quality apps and big feature list, but articles such as this one really should be more nuanced when pushing Telegram's marketing message of "We have true privacy and unlimited space for everyone.". Their default mode is not end-to-end encrypted [1] and as such the product is less private than WhatsApp. Even tech-savvy users in my social circles are not aware of this…

> When talking about privacy these articles should at least mention Signal. I hope they will use their recent funding [2] to polish their apps and increase the speed of innovation. I keep repeating this often, but Signal is not a user friendly platform for average users. It is good for ephemeral chats and conversations that one wouldn't care about later. Signal actively blocks chats from being backed up (and restored…

Signal requires a phone number that discloses your identity and location, they could have more privacy if they didn't require it.

Re: Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage

#163

Post by codedokode » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 2:29 PM UTC

newscracker wrote: post #150

dnate wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is literally no downside to end-to-end encrypting text messages. So it should be default. It is just harder to implement technically.

That's not a very good use of "literally", because searching through encrypted messages will certainly be slower, and on mobile devices, this will have a bigger impact on responsiveness and battery life. That is a big downside on mobile (not desktop). Create similar chats that are long (like tens of thousands of messages) on different apps and compare Telegram's search speed with others'.

Keeping a long history is almost always a bad idea because something you have written a year ago and have forgotten can be used against you. Keeping messages for just about a week is much better idea.

Re: Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage

#164

Post by vog » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 2:29 PM UTC

newscracker wrote: post #142

Telegram is a fantastic app and platform in the IM/chat space. The feature set, speed and pace of development are far ahead of any others I've seen. The fact that its default chats are not end-to-end encrypted and are stored in plaintext on its servers is a concern. Everyone who talks about this as a huge deficiency should also consider that this applies to email too, unless one always uses encryption (like GPG/PGP o…

> The fact that its default chats are not end-to-end encrypted and are stored in plaintext on its servers is a concern.

"Concern"? This is a deal-breaker.

> Everyone who talks about this as a huge deficiency should also consider that this applies to email too, unless one always uses encryption (like GPG/PGP or S/MIME).

The contenders here are Signal and WhatsApp, not email.

Having better UX and safer defaults than email is nothing to be proud of - it is the bare minimum.

Re: Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage

#165

Post by bovermyer » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

arendtio wrote: post #137

mgw wrote: post #15

I understand Telegram's appeal because of its high quality apps and big feature list, but articles such as this one really should be more nuanced when pushing Telegram's marketing message of "We have true privacy and unlimited space for everyone.". Their default mode is not end-to-end encrypted [1] and as such the product is less private than WhatsApp. Even tech-savvy users in my social circles are not aware of this…

Just to throw in another alternative: Some might know XMPP [1] for being the IETF standardized instant messaging protocol and Conversations [2] as one of the modern XMPP clients. Recently, the main author of Conversations created a new version of his app called 'Quicksy'. Quicksy is still an XMPP client but with the ease of use other messangers deliver. For example, you don't have to choose a provider. Yet you still…

I just bought the Conversations app a couple days ago. It looks like, from the Quicksy.im site, that Quicksy is meant to eventually funnel users into Conversations.

I'm a little confused by this path. What would make Quicksy users go to Conversations?

Re: Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage

#166

Post by codedokode » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 2:31 PM UTC

mourner wrote: post #11

It's a fantastic service from an engineering perspective. Fast, lightweight, reliable, simple, with low battery drain and data usage, and open source clients. A real joy to use.

Also it works under Windows XP unlike most of the competitors with poor quality Electron apps.

Re: Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage

#167

Post by dkrich » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

Serious question as someone who has never used Telegram and don't know anyone who uses it: what's the plan for sustainability from a financial perspective?

Running the infrastructure for a scalable secure and reliable service like this for hundreds of millions of users has to be extremely expensive. Yet on Telegram's website it says that it will be free forever and will never sell advertisements or charge subscription fees. So is it donations?

Re: Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage

#168

Post by codedokode » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 2:34 PM UTC

nextstep wrote: post #8

Please, please, please use Signal instead. And tell your friends! Telegram has made very dubious privacy claims, but even if you trust the company, Signal has a far superior user experience. Telegram’s private messages are not enabled by default, and when you are using private messaging, numerous other features are disabled defeating the point.

Signal requires a phone number which discloses your identity and location and doesn't allow any alternative options. If you could use it anonymously there would be more privacy.

Re: Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage

#169

Post by richjdsmith » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 2:36 PM UTC

dkrich wrote: post #167

Serious question as someone who has never used Telegram and don't know anyone who uses it: what's the plan for sustainability from a financial perspective? Running the infrastructure for a scalable secure and reliable service like this for hundreds of millions of users has to be extremely expensive. Yet on Telegram's website it says that it will be free forever and will never sell advertisements or charge subscriptio…

That's the issue.

Frankly, if I could donate or pay to use Telegram and in exchange, it was open-sourced so I could be sure I wasn't the product, I'd have my wallet out in a heartbeat.

Re: Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage

#170

Post by lykr0n » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 2:39 PM UTC

Telegram is great because, for me, for two reasons:

1. Extremely well written mobile and desktop apps. Great performance and low resource usage. 2. Group functionality.

It's not fully secure, but there are a bunch of thriving communities on there that are great. Local groups, coding groups, IT groups, etc. Also- if you're part of the furry community it is the de-facto communication platform.