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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

#71

Post by snaky »

rplnt wrote: post #22
xrisk wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used Signal and my main qualm with it is that messages don’t sync between platforms and also the phone app is nowhere as good as Telegram’s.

Well, if it would sync, it's not private. Unless the app allows you to sync the keys offline. Telegram doesn't sync either if you enable e2e encryption. But I agree that Telegram apps are great. Both Android ones, and the desktop ones as well. Small, fast, reliable, great UX.

> Unless the app allows you to sync the keys offline

And why wouldn't the app allow it?

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

#72

Post by tadzik_ »

akvadrako wrote: post #48
tadzik_ wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, please don't. Open Whisper Systems is a company that uses "open-source" as a marketing term while bullying the people who choose to take advantage of it. You can build your own client, but if you start to distribute it, they'll ban you from using their servers[1], with an explanation plain ridiculous for a company that took thousands of dollars from various open source foundations. The server is open source,…

Signal is completely "open-source", but that doesn't mean their chat network is open. How can you even confuse those things?

I don't think I'm confusing them – but I do think that their "open-source"-ness is virtually worthless, as the only thing you're allowed to do is read the source yourself and hope that it's the same thing that you're getting from the official packages and servers.

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

#74

Post by tadzik_ »

detaro wrote: post #47
tadzik_ wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, please don't. Open Whisper Systems is a company that uses "open-source" as a marketing term while bullying the people who choose to take advantage of it. You can build your own client, but if you start to distribute it, they'll ban you from using their servers[1], with an explanation plain ridiculous for a company that took thousands of dollars from various open source foundations. The server is open source,…

That's not dishonest. You might not like their policy (I'm not a fan of it either), but it's clearly stated, based on consistent logic and not at odds with the software being open-source.

Fair point; I guess too often I expect "free software" when I see "open-source".

I don't think I'm the only one though, at least to a degree. When the only thing you allow your users is to read the source code, you are technically open-source, but it's the kind of openness that doesn't guarantee anything. More and more often companies use the term "Open source software" because they know that people will walk around the internet and say "it's safe and secure: after all, it's open source!"

OWS is aware of this, which is especially valuable when you brag about privacy as a communications network, but they deliberately chose to limit what you can do with said "open source" – to a degree that's quite ridiculous for a company that calls themselves "Open (...) Systems" :)

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

#75

Post by h91wka »

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.

Both Signal and Telegram use SMS for authN tokens, enough said. Being secure and censorship proof while relying on mobile networks just doesn't compute. Correction: or at least they used to? Now I realize that I am not completely sure.

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

#76

Post by roel_v »

cosarara wrote: post #66
roel_v wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well yeah but it's not the mess the gp alludes to.

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

#77

Post by emerongi »

simias wrote: post #21
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.

I've never used Telegram but I do use Signal daily and if it really offers a "far superior experience" then Telegram must be akin to connecting to an IRC server with telnet as a client. Seriously though, Signal's UI is pretty terrible and they go out of their way to discourage third party clients. It's fine as a replacement for SMS (the way I use it) but if you're used to more fully featured web messengers it's a pre…

Which features are missing? I text and call through Signal and I've not felt like there is anything missing.

For a while they didn't have support for front-facing cameras, but that was added some time in the last year. Only other problem I've had is that on some Android phones the "voicemail" feature (or w/e it's called) wasn't working well, but not sure if it's still a thing.

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

#78

Post by h91wka »

teekert wrote: post #43
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.

The user experience of Telegram is by far the best of all apps with the sleekest ui's and the native (electron) apps for all platforms. Moreover because of the lack of e2e encryption (on standard chat) all your messages are just there when you log in and are easily searchable. Telegram also has very nice channels and some excellent bots and a very nice feature to send yourself stuff you want accessible anywhere... Bu…

My not-so-tech-savvy relatives use matrix. It's as easy as opening a web page.

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

#79

Post by ta2223332221 »

tadzik_ wrote: post #45
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.

Please, please don't. Open Whisper Systems is a company that uses "open-source" as a marketing term while bullying the people who choose to take advantage of it. You can build your own client, but if you start to distribute it, they'll ban you from using their servers[1], with an explanation plain ridiculous for a company that took thousands of dollars from various open source foundations. The server is open source,…

"Open source" means the SOURCE CODE is OPEN. Which it is.

The internet is full of half-baked "secure" and "private" chat clients and servers. Security is hard to get right. I'm guessing they don't want the reputation of Signal muddled up with some other random client. IIUC anyone can run their own network, and make it as open as they like, using their code, they just can't call it Signal. Much like how Firefox and RedHat use their trademarks.

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

#80

Post by reacharavindh »

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.

I mean, say Telegram is bad, but don't hype up Signal as the pariah to this peril.

It is open source in the sense that you can read the source of the project, but can't really build it and use it for yourselves or verify the build you get via the App Store is the same as open source project. Practically open source as a marketing strategy.

Secondly, it needs a phone number all the time to use, which ties in with personal identity. Why? A better alternative would be a project that allows someone to choose a username and be done with it! Like HN!

The true danger of security is the false sense of it. It makes you feel okay to share personal and sensitive information. ️

I'd love for the Mattix project and riot.im to take off. Hopefully the government of France can throw its weight behind it for good causes.

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