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Telegram gets 3M new signups during Facebook apps’ outage

techcrunch.com

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

#61

Post by HHalvi »

botto wrote: post #56
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?

I hate the hassle of setting up Keybase on Mobile andDesktop so i have never bothered about it till now.

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

#62

Post by Vinnl »

franky47 wrote: post #18
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 on Android relies upon Google Play Services for the microphone and camera permissions, which can't be turned off. It is open-source [1] so one could install it without going through the Google Play Store (it's not on F-Droid though), but it's another case of Google's ever-expanding grasp over "interesting" (read: competing) Android apps. [1] https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Android

It only depends on GPS if you actually have that installed. I don't, and Signal works fine using an official package (which you install the first time from their website, after which it self-updates).

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

#63

Post by GranPC »

yorick wrote: post #55
reitanqild wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No, you can share just your username, but you need a number to sign up.

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

#64

Post by detaro »

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).

Group chats have been quite unreliable at times, although probably not due to outages, but bugs.

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

#65

Post by dpq »

DownGoat wrote: post #41
dpq wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Telegram has made very dubious privacy claims My love for the word "dubious" cannot be overstated. While there's been a lot of solidly-seeming (I am not a security researcher) criticism of TG security infrastructure, I don't recall a single instance of chats or metadata being actually compromised so far. > Signal has a far superior user experience. Not in this Universe, unfortunately. Signal is borderline unusable,…

> The only feature that comes to mind is the absence of sync to other devices (which is kinda expected). Why is that expected? Just because things are encrypted does not mean that they shouldn't be syncable. Signal offers this.

I stand corrected then: which was expected by me. It's awesome that Signal provides this feature, but I'm afraid it alone won't be sufficient to entice users to switch to Signal en masse.

Still, this doesn't invalidate my question as of which other features are missing from TG secret chats; being an active Telegram user I can't put my finger on any.

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

#66

Post by cosarara »

roel_v wrote: post #33
lucideer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Signal has a far superior user experience No. It doesn't. If you're going to advocate for an open alternative, at least be intellectually honest about it's pros/cons. You might have gotten used to Signal, and be unfamiliar with Telegram (and sure, much of usability has an element of subjectivity to it), but... the above statement simply isn't true in the general sense. Personally, I tend to try and advocate for Rio…

Having just installed Signal yesterday, in what respect is it worse than Whatsapp (from a UI pov)? The only thing I found so far is the bad integration with contacts.

Bad integration with contacts sounds pretty serious.

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

#67

Post by Sendotsh »

chewz wrote: post #38

I am recommending Wire. https://wire.com/en/ https://wire.com/en/about/ https://wire.com/en/security/

Wire is definitely my favourite of the secure IMs as far as UI/UX. It's also the one I've had most luck with when referring non-tech family and friends. They didn't like Signal or Riot (for a variety of reasons) but are happy to use Wire.

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

#68

Post by dpq »

Arnt wrote: post #46
dpq wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Telegram has made very dubious privacy claims My love for the word "dubious" cannot be overstated. While there's been a lot of solidly-seeming (I am not a security researcher) criticism of TG security infrastructure, I don't recall a single instance of chats or metadata being actually compromised so far. > Signal has a far superior user experience. Not in this Universe, unfortunately. Signal is borderline unusable,…

Signal is borderline unusable? I've never used Telegram but if that's your assessment of Signal, Telegram must be great. Can you tell me about it?

Honestly I think the docs/official feature map at telegram.org would do a better job than me. I don't think you'd enjoy TG if none of your friends are using it, though [obviously].

Edit: ok I launched Signal which was installed on my phone since forever but never saw any active use, and I must say I remember it to be much worse than it actually is. Either it's seen a lot of improvement, or my initial experience frustrated me away.

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