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?
Threema costs money, which is a showstopper for mass adoption.
> 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…
Telegram is not a tool for sensitive communications, there are far better options if you don't trust some company or have serious adversaries (Signal comes to mind). But it does aggressively surface the P2P AES256 text chat feature, it does P2P AES256 encrypt voice and video by default (unless I'm badly mistaken), it's got the cute emoji key-verification affordance in voice and video, it does aggressively surface fea…
Still seems like a good thing. I can use the same app with the same contacts for e2e chats too. Also the calls are e2e encrypted. For now: Telegram is fast with good UX, many contacts, works just fine and is reasonably secure (with their own "credo"). The mentioned above WhatsApp is a closed source client program that can do whatever it wants on your phone, who said that it is not secretly sending any word you type to some telemetry address, while e2e encrypting your chat traffic...
> 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…
There’s probably a lesson to be learned here. People care about these features. Tell you what: I care about these features! And I also care about e2ee but I care more about all the things I can’t do with e2ee enabled. When it matters, I enable secret chats. In the early weeks of the war I used secret chats a ton to organise things (and I echo your observation that most people don’t know about them). But it doesn’t ma…
I can't use secret chats because they're only available on mobile, possibly macOS (and Unigram if you use Windows 10), not Windows or Linux, and I like accessing my chats across devices and typing on a physical keyboard.
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...
>You must have missed all the very suspicious information about Durov's close ties with Russian authorities
That's rather fine in the event you don't want the Five Eyes to spy on you and you don't care if Putin reads your messages when he eats his breakfast.
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,…
> Emojis can only be PG-13 and "wholesome" (like banning gun emoji and replacing it with water gun- where I live no one owns guns - and guns are irrelevant to my politics and everyone else's). Telegram's stickers are really fun and creative. I appreciate stuff like this too. I hate being treated like a child. Sometimes I want to express "just shot me" with an emoticon, which a watergun ruins.
FIY this is not because of Telegram as they use the Apple emoji set
Telegram blows my mind. Say what you want about their security; they have the absolute best UX of any (primarily 1-on-1) messaging app, bar none. Discord is a close second. But the quality and polish of telegram blows me away to this day. And it’s lots of small features and details such as built in translation for messages in a foreign language, all the smooth animations, quick look and summaries of channels with agg…
Telegram UX still has a lot of place to improve. E.g. I hate being unable to pin more than five chats an having to hunt the rest as they jump around.
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.
Because the authorities will kill his or some employees' relatives if they won't cooperate.
There’s probably a lesson to be learned here. People care about these features. Tell you what: I care about these features! And I also care about e2ee but I care more about all the things I can’t do with e2ee enabled. When it matters, I enable secret chats. In the early weeks of the war I used secret chats a ton to organise things (and I echo your observation that most people don’t know about them). But it doesn’t ma…
I can't use secret chats because they're only available on mobile, possibly macOS (and Unigram if you use Windows 10), not Windows or Linux, and I like accessing my chats across devices and typing on a physical keyboard.
Secret chats are available on Linux, they’re just not accessible across devices. You’re finding out about the issues with e2ee.
> 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…
>...and yes, nobody of them used Secret chats... Pretty much no one does any sort of identity verification anyway on any E2EE messaging system. So that means that the people running the servers can MITM if they feel like it to get the content. So in practice Telegram might be the best of something or another for all it matters. It's sort of a con. Yes our E2EE encryption app is perfectly secure assuming you do this t…
strong second.
literally no one cares for the 'secret key of x has changed' on whatsapp, so i might as well enjoy the supperior useability of telegram.