Does Telegram improve over WhatsApp? Is it poor than Signal or WhatsApp? What is preferable – signal or telegram? Which one is better? The fresh circle of commonly asked questions you are looking at recently. How did that happen? Well, as you may know, WhatsApp has launched new Terms and Conditions that cause users to overload Telegram and Signal to find other message applications.
With over 2 billion active monthly users, WhatsApp is the world’s biggest messaging App. Then Telegram represents 400 million and Signal is around 10-20 million active monthly users in an estimate.
Based on the raw figures, it is obvious that WhatsApp is massively famous and virtually present while Telegram catches up and Signal looks just started the race of the million installations. However, the stats do not tell you it all and that is why we are comparing WhatsApp vs Telegram vs Signal in depth.
Here is the difference between WhatsApp Telegram and Signal.
History of Companies
In the chat app group, we begin with the oldest one:
Brian Acton and Jan Koum former Yahoo! employees created WhatsApp 12 years ago on February 24, 2009, in California.
Next year Google sought to buy WhatsApp but was refused many times. Facebook announced on February 19, 2014, that it has received WhatsApp for the biggest acquisition it has ever had to date of $19 billion.
Both the founders of WhatsApp departed the firm. In September 2017, Brian Acton resigned and founded the Signal Foundation, which develops Signal, the direct competitor of WhatsApp’s. Jan Koum, co-founder and CEO, revealed that he is quitting the firm after April of that year. Chris Daniels was his substitute.
In January 2021 you already know what occurred, when the new Privacy Policy was announced. This excludes the EU because the new policy violates the EU General Data Protection Regulation principles.
Telegram
Nikolai and Pavel Durov, who had developed the VK social networking site, introduced Telegram Messenger in Russia on 14 August 2013.
Nikolai has created Telegram’s MTProto data protocol, whilst Pavel has supported it financially and ideologically.
Based on its IT rules and the quest for a new location, the Telegram team (primarily St. Petersburg developers) was obliged to leave Russia. They were in Berlin, London and Singapore and are now in Dubai, but they are ready to go if there are changes to local rules.
Users received a notification on January 13, 2021, “Telegram exceeded 500 million active users. Over 25 million new users worldwide downloaded Telegram in the last 72 hours alone.” In addition, data from Telegram indicate that by 2022 users hit 1 billion.
Signal
The signal is the heir to the Red Phone Voice Calling App and Text Security Text Programming, originally produced by Open WHISPER Systems and its creation’s Moxie Marlinspike and roboticist Stuart Anderson Security Researcher in May 2010, and is the very first free iOS app that has encrypted end-to-end voice calls. Signal was launched on 29 July 2014, as a unit of the two applications.
On 21 February 2018, Brian Acton’s initial grant of $50 million unleashed the non-profit Signal Technology Foundation in California. Acton is the Chairman and CEO of Signal private Messenger stays Moxie Marlinspike.
It was overwhelmed and momentarily suspended in January 2021 owing to the huge increase of new Signal users, but they returned shortly.
Features and Services
Take a look at the features of these three applications Whatsapp, Telegram and Signal. Discover which one is the most available to its customers.
WhatsApp mostly gives nearly all the characteristics you may require. Group chat support with up to 256 people is available. You may also send messages simultaneously to numerous contacts.
Voice and video calls for different users as well as groups are also supported. However, you are restricted at all times to 8 participants for group video calls.
In addition, WhatsApp offers a separate function that does not offer either Telegram or Signal. Yes, I speak of the status of WhatsApp (also called Stories). The users enjoy this function since their ideas and sentiments may be expressed to their near ones. This makes WhatsApp in a certain manner a social media platform, rather than merely a message service.
You can exchange any kind of WhatsApp files in the future, however, file size limitations must be respected. The maximum is 16 MB for images, videos and audio files. Documents can nevertheless exceed 100 MB. You may also communicate with your connections on life and I’m sure this function will be beneficial to many users.
And as WhatsApp is designed for ordinary users, it provides smooth backup and restoration features via cloud services such as Google Drive and iCloud. And the greatest thing is that there’s no cloud backup. To say nothing, WhatsApp now supports dark mode as well. You may go to our post about top WhatsApp tips and tricks to learn more about its capabilities.
Telegram
While WhatsApp provides you with the majority of features, Telegram’s main functionality is overloaded. The app includes so many that it is unbelievable. You receive the essentials like chats, group conversations and channels, similar to WhatsApp. However, Telegram adds support for groups with up to 25,000 members, unlike WhatsApp’s 256 member restriction!
There are also a variety of group-specific features such as bots, polls, quizzes, hashtags and many more that may enjoy group experiences.
The programme also contains unparalleled capabilities such as a self-destructing message that is ideal to send messages that you don’t want to stay eternally. You may also receive help to alter messages delivered, including features such as message scheduling, media sharing, themes, etc.
Telegram gives unbelievable granular support for notifications from the app. Furthermore, Telegram has a size restriction of 1.5GB to share files.
Telegram did not provide video calling till a time ago. However, both voice and video conversations on iOS and Android smartphones are now available. This is fantastic because support for video calling was an absence from the app.
Signal
When it comes to privacy, Signal surpasses Telegram and WhatsApp handily but lacks the functionality they provide. Nevertheless, I think that there is no significant feature that may prevent you from using the programme.
You have secure messages, voices and video conversations and all communications are encrypted from start to finish. In addition, you may establish groups, however, you cannot simultaneously spread messages to numerous contacts. In addition, Signal just introduced the capability for group calling, which was a long time absent from the programme.
You have capabilities like messages that evaporate similar to Telegram’s self-destructing and you can transmit a one-time picture that may be seen. For me, “Note to Self” is the finest feature of Signal. Unlike WhatsApp, a single group does not have to be created to communicate notes. On Signal, the function is native, and during messages with friends and family, you may identify your ideas and views.
In addition, Signal enables you to transmit audio calls to its servers to keep your identity hidden from your contacts. The function is a little bit like a VPN. Signal also provides an integrated solution for hiding your IP address. Furthermore, when texting Signal, you may use an incognito keyboard, apply dark mode, delete previous messages in one stroke, and of course, you can use your sophisticated picture editor to blaspheme and personal information.
There are also emoticons and some privacy stickers, but compared to WhatsApp and Telegram they are quite restricted. In summary, Signal provides some of the greatest privacy features for those that desire limitless personalization choices but may be short. In our post on Signal tips & techniques, you may learn more about signal characteristics.
Messaging Apps Privacy
WhatsApp Security
The reason you are here is probably WhatsApp privacy and security setup. Can I use WhatsApp safely? As far as your communications are concerned, they are safe since WhatsApp employs an E2E (End-to-End encryption technique) so that only you and those of you who talk to you can view the messages, not even WhatsApp can intercept or read your messages.
What is interesting is that the encryption protocol of WhatsApp isn’t any other than the Signal Protocol. This protocol is open-sourced, thus it is publicly available. Everyone may examine them and enable others to discover flaws and mistakes, which will make their repair faster.
Then what’s all the hell, you may ask? Well, whereas E2E-encrypted messages do not contain backups or information. Your metadata – IP address, name & cellphone number, location history, contacts and telephone numbers – and even device type, might be collected by WhatsApp. The new privacy policy of WhatsApp means, and there can be no way to avoid this, that your info is shared with Facebook.
Well, if you don’t remove the app. However, it should be noted that WhatsApp emphasised that the modifications apply to WhatsApp’s optional commercial services and do not impact any chats with your family or friends.
WhatsApp enables two-factor (2FA) authentication and the option of fingerprinting your communications.
The history of WhatsApp included numerous hack assaults, one of which was Jeff Bezos, one of the wealthiest individuals in the world who was hacked by WhatsApp. WhatsApp started in December 2019 that they had remedied a safety flaw allowing the hacker access to user information through a malicious GIF. Only on WhatsApp did users access their galleries to trigger the attack and reveal their contents. Fortunately, this threat has not impacted anyone.
Telegram Security
As opposed to its rivals, Telegram employs customer and group conversations (cloud chats) with client-server encryption, which means that Telegram has access to its communications since they are encrypted and decrypted on their servers. They employ the E2E encryption technique for secret chat and audio and video conversations.
Telegram is using its MTProto, a customized encryption protocol that has been created by Nikolai Durov and others. The AES symmetric 256-biter encryption, the Diffie–Hellman secure key exchange and the 2048-bit RSA encryption are used. Telegram applications are both open source and Telegram Database Library and may be evaluated and approved by everyone on GitHub.
About your user data, Telegram gathers and maintains your phone number as your account, username and contact details are required to be confirmed. In addition, your metadata, such as your IP address, the devices you use and your telegram application, your history of user names changes, and others might be collected and stored for up to 12 months. They indicate that if the appropriate authorities are asked to provide your IP address and phone number, thus consider utilising a VPN if you would like to disguise your IP address.
Telegram includes a 2FA function and a passcode or fingerprint function to secure your communication.
Were Telegram hacked? Like WhatsApp, Telegram has often been hacked. On one of the occasions in 2019, activists reported security violations during protests in Hong Kong to enable law enforcement forces to monitor them. These security infractions led Telegram to provide a new option for users to conceal their numbers. In the middle of 2020, Telegram was reported to be a security violation that revealed user telephone and Telegram ID on the darknet. 60% of the information was missing, 84% was old, 70% of the accounts exposed were from the Iranian population, and 30% was from Russia.
Signal App Security
We have reached the safest instant messaging application of all. Signal utilises its protocol cryptography, the End-to-end Encryption Signal Protocol, which is utilised without exception for all communications and conversations. Each conversation has a unique security number that enables you to monitor the safety of your messages and calls with specific contacts.
As we have already said, the Signal Protocol is open source and may be examined on GitHub.
WhatsApp and Signal share the same protocol, however, Signal is the safer application of both. Maybe you wonder how this can occur. We spoke about the WhatsApp collection information, and the list was lengthy. Signals gather just one thing, on the other hand: your telephone number, meaning that data such as the time and place of your communications are likewise encrypted, so nobody accesses them.
Signal has taken one step further to include a feature called Sealed Sender in terms of your privacy. Even Signal does not know the identity of the sender and the recipient or other associated information using this functionality.
Signal was inspired by protests in the United States by the mid-2020 Black Lives Matter. In its blurred images, Signal has introduced a technology capable of preserving human privacy and identity. Signals with obscured faces– Safety measure for Android and iOS Signal applications is available.
Signal provides two-factor authentication and an option to encrypt your messages with a PIN or fingerprints, TouchesID or FaceID.
Only if the hacker is someone who has your telephone physically and can simply open the app and look at your messages is a signal which we know hasn’t been hacked, and that is the only method. We may infer with all this in mind that the safety of Signal is truly inviolable.
Final Thoughts
It is apparent and evident that the signal is very safe and privately owned following the full debate. When your privacy is the highest priority, Signal is the way forward for you. WhatsApp is excellent about E2E encryption. However, I can’t propose WhatsApp to anyone with the new privacy policy.
In terms of safety, however, Telegram Messenger cannot be the finest. It delivers a truckload of features sufficient to render any group administrator dry. You also receive encryption end-to-end on Telegram, but only in secret talks.
In summary, if you want more functionality than the usual messenger, I would advise going with Telegram. If you search for vital messages and calling functions together with a top security level, you may take Signal into account. However, with the recent policy modification, WhatsApp looks riskier than ever.
