WhatsApp vs Signal vs Telegram

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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WhatsApp vs Signal vs Telegram

Facebook recently issued a notice within WhatsApp informing users that they need to accept its updated terms of service and privacy policy or lose access to the app from 8 February.

The ultimatum resulted in a backlash against WhatsApp on social media, with many people looking for alternatives to the popular instant messaging app.

Facebook has assured that the change only applies to business messaging on WhatsApp, but this hasn’t stopped people from checking out other platforms and more carefully scrutinising the data that Facebook collects through WhatsApp.
 
Marius Flash

Marius Flash

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I prefer Telegram, it's so much more enhanced when you use emoticons and stickers, very interactive and exciting, not boring like whatsapp, I believe Telegram will gain in popularity worldwide and whatsapp will decrease in time.
 
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sandwitch

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I like that other apps were briefly mentioned and it explains why they're not part of this whole "WhatsApp alternative" shebang.

It would be interesting to see who has moved and is using alternate chat apps in a couple of weeks. Almost all my contacts moved across to Telegram but they're still using WhatsApp to chat, which is pointless.
 
ronald911

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Ignoring the privacy stuff about Whatsapp, I've been using Telegram telegram since 2017 and got all my closest friends to start using it. I actually have some friends who have it just because of me.

As a whole, Telegram is just so much better in terms of features and functionality, and for someone like me who prefer texting on my computer than my phone, the Telegram desktop app is years ahead of that dumpy Whatsapp web app that relies on my phone being on, etc. Weird.

Yes, Telegram does take longer to ship features, but once they launch a feature it's almost flawless.

Waiting patiently for Telegram to launch group video (although I rarely video call with more than 1 person, my friends and I use Whereby)
 
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Pegasus

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I haven't got the "this message has been forwarded many times" message on whatsapp today, so I guess things are getting quiet there.
 
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newby_investor

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Wayne2k said:
What about wickr?
Click to expand...
I'm on Wickr, it seems a bit clunky. Apart from a family member who I almost bullied to install it so that we could test a few messages, it's a ghost town. I don't know anyone else who uses it. So doesn't matter how technically good it is, it kind of falls flat in that department.
 
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newby_investor

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ronald911 said:
As a whole, Telegram is just so much better in terms of features and functionality, and for someone like me who prefer texting on my computer than my phone, the Telegram desktop app is years ahead of that dumpy Whatsapp web app that relies on my phone being on, etc. Weird.
Click to expand...

Telegram is able to do that because of its security model which is different from WhatsApp's.

Telegram stores your chats in the cloud, while WhatsApp stores them only on your device, plus whatever backup that you've manually configured.

Security and convenience often have to be traded off against each other.
 
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newby_investor

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rustypup said:
This is commonly referred to as an unsubstantiated claim. Made in 2016. With zero revision whereby this claim was proven true.

For the record, it is now 2021.
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They still claim it:

Security | Viber

www.viber.com www.viber.com
I'm not aware of any independent audits.

FWIW, WhatsApp still "claims" E2EE, and this was done with (then) OpenWhisperSystems in 2014. Even longer ago. Whether or not it is still in place comes down to whether you trust / believe WhatsApp. Neither of the apps are open source.

IMO there's more reason to trust Viber than WhatsApp.

I'm not a proponent of Viber, but the reason they were excluded from the comparison was either not offering E2EE (they do) or collecting more data than WhatsApp does (they don't). Which seemed unfair.
 
RonSwanson

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newby_investor said:
They still claim it:

Security | Viber

www.viber.com www.viber.com
I'm not aware of any independent audits.

FWIW, WhatsApp still "claims" E2EE, and this was done with (then) OpenWhisperSystems in 2014. Even longer ago. Whether or not it is still in place comes down to whether you trust / believe WhatsApp. Neither of the apps are open source.

IMO there's more reason to trust Viber than WhatsApp.

I'm not a proponent of Viber, but the reason they were excluded from the comparison was either not offering E2EE (they do) or collecting more data than WhatsApp does (they don't). Which seemed unfair.
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There are many messaging platforms that provide equivalent or better security than Whatsapp, Wire is another one which I have personally been using for many years alongside Signal. I think that the article was aimed at the most popular messaging apps in SA. Viber is very popular in Aus, for example, but maybe not so much here.
That does not invalidate your point or your question though, and I agree that a broader and deeper analysis should be done.
 
alloytoo

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I occasionally use Element. It works, but not something I could get my folks to use.
 
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