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Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage

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

#51

Post by botto »

ymolodtsov wrote: post #40
botto wrote: post #25

Telegram is scary and questionable. Inventing your own encryption is never the answer and reeks of horrible understanding of security, at this stage there is no reason they should not adopt a standard of communication like Signal protocol. Signal app itself is ok, it's a little....annoying as it requires a phone number and the UX needs some love. Keybase is great, It has ways of verifying you across multiple services…

We still haven't seen any examples of Telegram being compromised.

That's the same as saying that a car model is safe because there have not been any crashes yet with this make and model. No cars are safe because there are industry standards that a manufacturer is tested to ensure they are following.

Closed source (both in code and implementation) has no place in the security world and anything security related should always be open for anyone to scrutinize.

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

#52

Post by rvanmil »

When will HN learn that convenience beats security every single time? All posts that mention Telegram get the same tiring comments about security and they're all utterly pointless and preaching to the choir. Yes, we know there are more secure messenger apps out there, thanks. But unless they offer at least the same convenience as Telegram does, no one will use them except you and some of your tech friends. If you want security and privacy to become mainstream, simply make it a boring, invisible implementation detail of your messenging platform which is superior in convenience.

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

#53

Post by AiaMD13 »

fvjft wrote: post #31
AiaMD13 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't agree more. Have been using Telegram since I quit using Facebook, and it proved to be far more reliable then even whatsapp. The only problem is that most of people I know prefer and use whatsapp and it's been challenging fo me to maintain all the contacts in one app.

In my experience Telegram has an outage every couple of months, while WhatsApp only drops dead once a year or so.

I wasn't really implying that whatsapp is in any way better. I personally enjoy using Telegram. I just expressed my frustration, because I'd really like to have only one app in my phone with all the contacts in it instead of 3 or 4.

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

#54

Post by rygxqpbsngav »

I think Signal is a good alternate to Whatsapp. I like the voice quality of Signal and it's privacy features.

I used Telegram too and I think its a good alternate to FB. Always stable and Has some great public and private channels. And doesn't drain battery like FB messenger does.

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

#55

Post by yorick »

reitanqild wrote: post #17
kgraves wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My main gripe with Signal is that it requires your phone number and you cannot setup your own instance. A major turn off for me.

FTR and as a user of Telegram who has often recommended it: Telegram also requires your phone number.

Telegram does not require your phone number, you can set it up with just a user name.

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

#56

Post by botto »

rvanmil wrote: post #52

When will HN learn that convenience beats security every single time? All posts that mention Telegram get the same tiring comments about security and they're all utterly pointless and preaching to the choir. Yes, we know there are more secure messenger apps out there, thanks. But unless they offer at least the same convenience as Telegram does, no one will use them except you and some of your tech friends. If you wan…

Keybase is very convenient, same features and is based on known standards and has arguably as good a UX as telegram.

Why isn't that used more?

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

#57

Post by fvjft »

renholder wrote: post #49
fvjft wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience Telegram has an outage every couple of months, while WhatsApp only drops dead once a year or so.

Since we're talking personal experience, Signal has never had an outage (that I was aware of).

We were talking about apps that have users.

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

#59

Post by Vinnl »

lloeki wrote: post #44
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.

Seriously, you have to realise this is about migrating from Messenger. Messenger , from Facebook . Any doubts about the "dubious claims" of Telegram are completely overshadowed by the definitive certainty that Messenger is extremely privacy invasive. Also, the Telegram experience is simply stellar throughout, performing brilliantly even under harsh network conditions. Signal just offers an insanely bad user experienc…

> Signal just offers an insanely bad user experience.

I don't agree with the claim that Signal has superior UX over Telegram, but it's definitely not insanely bad either. It has some rough edges, and it's desktop client is not that fully featured and doesn't look that great, but otherwise it's a perfectly fine app that my mother can use without problems and without specific instructions.

That's leagues above, say, Riot, or IRC, and I feel that "insanely bad UX" really paints the wrong picture.

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

#60

Post by GranPC »

botto wrote: post #51
ymolodtsov wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We still haven't seen any examples of Telegram being compromised.

That's the same as saying that a car model is safe because there have not been any crashes yet with this make and model. No cars are safe because there are industry standards that a manufacturer is tested to ensure they are following. Closed source (both in code and implementation) has no place in the security world and anything security related should always be open for anyone to scrutinize.

Feel free to scrutinize Telegram's crypto and E2E implementation for secret chats. It's open source and you can find it here: https://github.com/tdlib/td
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