Telegram is one of the most used messaging services in the world right now! This app is usually mentioned for it's online privacy and security.
Even though many other messaging apps say that they use End to End encryption, people the value their privacy still choose Telegram instead.
I'll be mentioning some of the most interesting aspects of this app and how to use them in your favour.
Telegram, a multi-platform of messaging is found by a Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov, he actually founded WK as well, WK is very similar to Facebook and it is very popular in Russia. As a application it rolled out in October 20, 2013. This year in 24 April 2020 Telegram announced that it had reached 400 million monthly active users. And this number is increasing every time that another large competitor has a privacy scandal.
So, Telegram is a messaging app, what's all the fuss about it?
While there is nothing more that you can do with it rather than other messaging apps, what's better when compared to others is the privacy that ensures the end-to-end encryption. This is what keeps a third person out of the conversation, it means only you and the other one that you are messaging/calling can read/hear what you have to say.
Monetization
While other big companies use their services for advertisement and third party data sharing, Telegram and its founder also CEO Pavel Durov says that they don't get the funds through advertising and/or data collection sharing. Telegram also lists one of its two tenets of internet privacy as “protecting your personal data from third parties, such as marketers, advertisers, etc.” So, while competitors like Facebook, Google, Amazon say that they use encryption and all sorts of things that ensure privacy, they all integrate with advertisers and data sharing.
Pros and cons of using Telegram!
Pros
Secret chats- don’t allow a person to forward messages from the chat or take screenshots. Sure you can take a picture of the screen with another device but let's just don't go there.
Self-destruct timers-after a message is received, you can choose you desired time from 1 sec to 1 week before it disappears forever.
Delete messages that you have sent to the other person or delete the whole chat for both of you in just a tap, that is very convenient.
Large file size limit- while Whatsapp supports files up to 100mb and also Skype does the same amount of mb, Telegram allows you to send files up to 1.5gb which is super darn good.
Customizations of Telegram chat are actually numerous, you can customize almost everything, from the color of the chat, to size of the letters and just everything else.
Cons
- New user announcement- while it's nice to get in touch with your contacts that are in you address book, the main reason people choose to use Telegram is the privacy and anonymity. I think Telegram should take notes and delete this feature, because every time a new user signs up to telegram all the contacts that have Telegram get a notification message.
- Stories and statuses- Telegram lacks this feature, while some might find it as an important feature...I think this shouldn't even be considered as a con.
Should you use Telegram?
If you are a person that values privacy and have something important to keep only for your eyes you should consider using Telegram with the Secret Chats enabled. Even though, if there is something that is meant only for your eyes, I suggest you keep it off the internet. It is super easy to use and it is not much different from others but you get the benefit of the peace of mind when it comes to privacy.
Telegram can be downloaded for free and you can actually use it in almost any device, PC, Mac, IOS, Android even if you don't want to install it in your device they have Telegram Web feature.
Do you use Telegram? Let me know what you like about it if you do!
theatdhe!
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I use telegram daily, originally started for a bitcoin faucet lol but now I use it with blockchain groups to stay updated with the active community. One of my buddies that was using telegram instantly messaged me when I joined, "Hey you joined too". I didn't join for anonymity but it would be cool to make it an option to allow contacts to see that or not. nice article! \m/
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It's so crazy to think that I never used it.
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I use it every day. In fact I quit whatsapp almost a year ago and been using telegram ever since.
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The only reason why I use whatsapp is because of my family...still couldn't make the use Telegram yet
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I converted all of them to telegram
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Lol it means that there are a lot of people out there!
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Are you sure people use Telegram for its security? I know I moved to Telegram and was able to bring over the people I most frequently chat with to Telegram as well. But I not necessarily moved to Telegram for its security features (the end-2-end encryption, and self destruct features). Most people dont use these special features, it limits to use of Telegram. One key aspect I'm using Telegram is the sync of chat history between all my devices. That feature comes with a cost. The content is stored centrally, and cannot allow end-2-end encryption. That basically means the Telegram owners/developers are able to read our messages. I was told the servers are in Europe, which was for me more ok then if they where based in eg Russia, or the USA.
I think another reason why lots of people using Telegram is the fact its so open for 3rd party applications to integrate with Telegram. Whole crypto universe is working with Telegram, likely for that reason.
Thanks for reading my post! Not necessarily for the end-to-end encryption I agree! As I already mentioned Whatsapp, Viber, and a lot of other competitors use end-to-end encryption as well and still you get ads (even inside the app), which means your data is still shared. One of the resons why the CEO and founder of Telegram, Durov is not living in Russia and moving from place to place is that Russian government wanted him to give them permission to control all the data.
Europe is very strict when it comes to privacy!
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Keep in mind, Whatsapp claims to provide end2end encryption, but apparently can swicth of end2end ecnryption without letting the users know. I never really researched this, so it may be fake news. But when they can, and when they do, we are not save for the NSA and CIA since the servers are located in the USA as far as I know. BTW, Telegram is working with authorities to catch some type of criminals. What they provide to the authorities, and how they work together, I don't know. Last time I checked, Telegram servers should be located in Berlin, Germany, so that in itself gives me some feeling for not too much abuse by Telegram in providing content to others.
Telegram gives out the informations if there are terrorist groups or attacking plans.
Many people that are not in that "line of work" are not concerned about this, their main concern is their photos and messages. In fact, Im really happy if telegram can find and give all the criminals that plan attacks.
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I understand where you comming from, but this is the deabte between privacy and to what extend authoristies shall have access to information about the individual. Only a few bad actors are required to missuse information they have access to. Shall we be fearing the possibility of bad actors misusing information about the individuals in society? Or shall we think positively, this will never happen? It would be too naive to think the later, therefore we shall be careful with who we give the ability to do something with all our digital information, and to what extend we allow them to be able to do something with this information.
I understand what you mean! And yes I agree, no platform is 100% safe to give all infos in it, thus pretty much many of our infos are in online databases, if we become a target theres is not much we can do!
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