Till recently, WhatsApp was one of the most used messaging systems in the world. Till it sent out a message to users informing them that they had to accept the updated terms of service & privacy policy by Feb. 8, 2021 or stop using the App. Under the proposed terms, Facebook, the controlling owner of WhatsApp, will reportedly get increased permission to store & use identifying personal data on its users. As a result, many users are opting out to use an alternative messaging app, which is less invasive but also secure & widely used. The 2 popular choices are Signal or Telegram.
In this article we examine the pros & cons of Signal & Telegram apps.
Signal
The biggest advantage of using Signal, besides its excellent security protocol, is that the app claims to store zero information linked to a user’s identity. Additionally, the source code for the app is open source so its mechanisms & techniques are absolutely transparent.
Signal is available on both Android iOS, & can be used on a desktop as long as you also have the app also on your phone. In fact, if you want to you can actually set up your own server using their code, which is exactly what WhatsApp did, they used the Signal code for the App, but it’s the only open source section of its otherwise closed source code.
Signal offers messaging, voice & video communication all of which feature its end-to-end encryption developed in-house. The app claims not to store any data on its servers.
The app’s interface lets user’s see if the person communicating is on their contacts list. It also offers disappearing messages, custom notification, & also allows the user to see if they have any groups in common with the caller.
The only downside to Signal so far was that it did not have a large user base but with the recent endorsement by Elon Musk this situation is likely to be remedied shortly, with the app seeing as many as 800 000 downloads daily.
Telegram offers many of the features that Signal has, but it has far more generous group call limits — group chats calls on Signal are limited to 1000 people, whereas Telegram allows “a few thousand participants”. When it comes to live video calls, though, Signal offers the feature including group live video calls of up to 8 people, whereas Telegram is only planning to roll out live video calls later this year.
Telegram does store a certain amount of data linked to your identity, but it claims not to use it for advertising. All that is required is your user ID, phone number & contacts. Signal only accesses your contacts, but no other information. (WhatsApp stores your device ID, user ID, contact info, email address, phone number, name & contact list).
The Telegram App is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android & iOS. It stores your messages on their Cloud server, & you can sync all your devices to accessing your messaging activities. So, for instance, you can start typing a message on your phone, but finish & send it on your Tablet without missing a beat. However, this advantage means that your messages are stored in the Cloud, & although Telegram promises that their end-to-end encryption is secure, any stored information is obviously still at risk.
The Telegram interface offers less information than Signal’s — only name, last seen, phone number & a notification. However, it currently has over 500 million active users as against Signal’s 30 million, so it’s much more likely that your contacts are already on Telegram.
As to WhatsApp, it has now gone out & announced that there was nothing to be nervous of its new policy in this announcement.
Image by relexahotels from Pixabay
