Should be noted though that the reason that secret chat is only on those devices is that it has no cloud sync at all and zero metadata on any servers which is why by it's nature it will be more restrictive, and was not the default option. Although Telegram does have some metadata on its servers as well as the encrypted chat content, that have a good track record of never revealing the information, and of course they are not in the business of selling or sharing data. All of that counts against WhatsApp as they have now shown they want to share our metadata.
Another hint not mentioned in the article is that you can fully hide your phone number after registering on Telegram and just give out your username for anyone to connect with you. This can really protect for identity from other users, unlike both WhatsApp and Signal which insist on showing your phone number.
Personally I'm glad to have now deleted my WhatsApp account and am fully rid of Facebook. Have got a bot going on a Telegram channel to auto post all my blog content and have 15 subscribers already.
What we really need though as a "solution" to messaging is an open protocol that can connect FB Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, XMPP, ActivityPub, Matrix, etc all together from any app you choose. Why can e-mail be interoperable but we are forced to endure walled gardens around most messengers? Something like XMPP used to work on Facebook, Skype, etc but Big Tech turned it off. XMPP allows full end-to-end-encryption between any compatible client.
