Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

700M users and Premium

telegram.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 330 posts

Re: 700M users and Premium

#221

Post by eugene3306 »

rg111 wrote: post #70

Many people are asking what are in Telegram that aren’t anywhere else? I can provide some answers. Telegram is my primary chat app. - It offers you to simply share an alphanumeric handle and you can connect with anyone in the world. I can do a voice chat or normal chat really quickly and easily. It is the only famous truly Instant Messenger there is. And I can do it without sharing my name (unlike FB), email address,…

Also, it shows proper dates and times for messages. Not that stupid «1 day ago»

Re: 700M users and Premium

#222

Post by croes »

d0mine wrote: post #193
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Say what you want about their security; they have the absolute best UX of any (primarily 1-on-1) messaging app, bar none. That is precisely because they don't give a shit about security. While others like Whatsapp bother with e2ee and resulting device sync problems and inability to do server-side search, Telegram just stores everything on a server without (meaningful) encryption and boldly claims that 'it is the mo…

I see this opinion often on HN but it is BS. If I were a dissident then given the choice between whatsapp and telegram, telegram wins "Secret chats use end-to-end encryption, thanks to which we don't have any data to disclose. To protect the data that is not covered by end-to-end encryption, Telegram uses a distributed infrastructure. Cloud chat data is stored in multiple data centers around the globe that are contro…

Why only the choice between WhatsApp and Telegram?

What about Signal, Wire, Threema?

Re: 700M users and Premium

#223

Post by prashantsengar »

nazka wrote: post #161

Honest question: How is Telegram better than Signal? Is Signal not the best in term of security and privacy?

Signal is better than Telegram in terms of security and privacy.

But people use Telegram for its plethora of features, the UX, and its attention to even the smallest of details.

Re: 700M users and Premium

#224

Post by kgeist »

Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #219
d0mine wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this opinion often on HN but it is BS. If I were a dissident then given the choice between whatsapp and telegram, telegram wins "Secret chats use end-to-end encryption, thanks to which we don't have any data to disclose. To protect the data that is not covered by end-to-end encryption, Telegram uses a distributed infrastructure. Cloud chat data is stored in multiple data centers around the globe that are contro…

You must have missed all the very suspicious information about Durov's close ties with Russian authorities, and that Telegram developers worked from the same office with VK in Saint-Petersburg when he claimed that they are in Germany. [1] Good choice for a dissident! (No) [1]: https://medium.com/@anton.rozenberg/friendship-betrayal-clai...

I quickly skimmed through the article (it's pretty long) and its main gist is that the author had a conflict with Pavel Durov's brother about his girlfriend, can you elaborate why you think Durov has ties to authorities? I don't see why working in St.Petersburg makes you a Putin ally.

Re: 700M users and Premium

#225

Post by ImageXav »

the_third_wave wrote: post #120
danpalmer wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firstly, I think there are a lot of people on the fringe of the extremist groups. Maybe they are only in a "concerned parents" group who talk about vaccines, but it's an on-ramp. Secondly, I think there are methodological issues with that analysis. Measuring by App Store categories is hard to do accurately, only presents a snapshot in time, its numbers that fluctuate a lot, and it only represents new user acquisition…

> This isn't really something we have a problem with in the UK. I'm sure there are some, but the bulk of our issues are growing far-right, nationalist, and/or authoritarian groups Are we talking about the same United Kingdom as the one where Yougov has been doing polls on the subject of extremism [1]? If so I wonder what gives you the impression that the bulk of [y]our issues are growing far-right, nationalist, and/o…

The Yougov poll is an interesting exercise in seeing how public perception does not align well with available data [0].

Section 3 of the link breaks down how many people have been identified as at risk from particular ideologies.

'Mixed, unstable or unclear' accounts for 51%.

Islamic extremism is 24%.

Right-wing extremism is 22%.

Left wing extremism is less than 3%.

So, the data aligns well with what the original commentator was suggesting.

[0] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/individuals-referre...

Re: 700M users and Premium

#226

Post by iRomain »

BoumTAC wrote: post #7
bathory wrote: post #2

Looking at the in-app purchase on iOS in Europe, the price seems to be about EUR 5.50 which I find to be quite steep, for these kinds of features. I've been wanting to support TG's development for a while now, but I would have hoped that this would be more in the vicinity of 1-3 Euros per month.

I think that's the main issue with those small subscriptions. We don't have an American salary here. I would happily pay for Telegram premium for 2-3€/month and have only a third of the features they propose. But 5-10€ for every service like this becomes expensive at the end of the month. I have the same issue with hey.com email provider, but they are too expensive too. I would love to have an email service provider…

Happy user of https://forwardemail.net for $3/month for unlimited domains/aliases. This is the only subscription I pay that I believe has a fair (cheap?) price.

I use it for all email forwards for my family: https://github.com/politician/barissat-infra

Re: 700M users and Premium

#227

Post by hiq »

d0mine wrote: post #193
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Say what you want about their security; they have the absolute best UX of any (primarily 1-on-1) messaging app, bar none. That is precisely because they don't give a shit about security. While others like Whatsapp bother with e2ee and resulting device sync problems and inability to do server-side search, Telegram just stores everything on a server without (meaningful) encryption and boldly claims that 'it is the mo…

I see this opinion often on HN but it is BS. If I were a dissident then given the choice between whatsapp and telegram, telegram wins "Secret chats use end-to-end encryption, thanks to which we don't have any data to disclose. To protect the data that is not covered by end-to-end encryption, Telegram uses a distributed infrastructure. Cloud chat data is stored in multiple data centers around the globe that are contro…

> To protect the data that is not covered by end-to-end encryption

No data (so Signal) is better than whatever legal hoops you're going through to supposedly avoid giving out the data you have. Plus if you look up "telegram data germany", it's not clear that it's actually working and that they're actually true to their word.

Re: 700M users and Premium

#228

Post by zamadatix »

up6w6 wrote: post #218
zamadatix wrote: post #141

After Hangouts died (yeah it's still Google Chat now but it's not the multi-function tool it used to be before they chopped it up to announce a piece is migrating to Chat) I switched to Signal. If I were to do that transition all over again I would do Telegram instead. Signal sounds nice but it's a bit overbearing - backups are somewhere between difficult to impossible depending on the device, there is no web client,…

> and it's only open source in that you can audit source or run your own independent chat network (3rd party clients on the official server are treated as hostile) not as in it's an open community Do you happen to know why there is no Telegram client fork using Matrix protocol? it seems a pretty obvious thing to try given their advantage with UI and Matrix ecosystem's slow progress with friendly clients.

IMO in general Element is probably the least "least friendly" part about using Matrix (and not really half bad itself) and somebody would have to want to fork+maintain and retrofit ~5 Telegram client repos on the basis they really like using a Matrix backend but like the Telegram client so much they think that's the easier path to a better Matrix client than just improving one of the other already working clients like they are trying to do already.

Re: 700M users and Premium

#229

Post by Ayesh »

anadem wrote: post #178
BoumTAC wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the main issue with those small subscriptions. We don't have an American salary here. I would happily pay for Telegram premium for 2-3€/month and have only a third of the features they propose. But 5-10€ for every service like this becomes expensive at the end of the month. I have the same issue with hey.com email provider, but they are too expensive too. I would love to have an email service provider…

> The only company I know who is doing an affordable paid service ... Bitwarden paid is $10 per YEAR. I'm very happy to pay that. (Off-topic for discussion of Telegram though)

Yeah, I too vividly remember that purchase as more wholesome and a way of supporting them, rather than purchasing something. The free version is super feature-rich, and I believe most of those who go premium do it to support Bitwarden.

Re: 700M users and Premium

#230

Post by hiq »

stereoradonc wrote: post #199

I went through the entire thread of conversations here, and I am surprised that anything related to Telegram is downvoted and the familiar trope of "security" is added. It's got best-in-class applications with lovely animations. The server now governs reactions to specific messages. Stickers are fun, with premium stickers having additional animations. From a technical perspective, they occupy least space; is "fast" a…

Telegram is criticized because it's way below than the state of the art when it comes to security, while still claiming (official website) that "messages are heavily encrypted" and that it "keeps your messages safe from hacker attacks" even though it does both way worse than e.g. WhatsApp and Signal.

I don't think a potential association with Russia is the main problem; what about E2EE by default, including for group chats? It's mind-boggling that it's 2022 and we still have to trust that whoever controls Telegram's servers doesn't abuse their powers and is diligent enough to protect them.

It's fine to celebrate Telegram for its features, but let's not pretend that this criticism is unwarranted.

Post reply on HN