WhatsApp Alternatives: Signal or Telegram
The WhatsApp messaging service will change its privacy policies on its users, sharing their information with Facebook, its parent company, and giving greater prominence to merchants for advertising. Now, with a large number of dissatisfied users, two platforms are growing in popularity.
Although the objective and the purpose are the same, Telegram and Signal have begun to gain relevance during the last hours, with an exodus of WhatsApp users towards their platforms, causing great congestion on their servers. But how are they different?
Users of the Telegram and Signal messaging applications have skyrocketed since WhatsApp announced changes to its ‘conditions and privacy’ policy with a view to integrating their data with Facebook.
More than 100,000 users have installed Signal on the Apple and Google app stores in the past two days, while Telegram has been downloaded nearly 2.2 million times, data analytics firm Sensor Tower revealed.
The co-founder of Telegram, Pável Dúrov, recently assured that the reason why millions of users are moving to his platform is that it “respects users” and that WhatsApp is “incapable of competing in quality and privacy”, which has allowed Telegram to currently host more than 500 million Internet users in the world.
WhatsApp, which was bought by Facebook in 2014 for $ 22,000 million USD, sent a notification this year asking users to accept the changes to their privacy policy, which must be accepted before February 8 to continue using the app in 2021.
Although the integration will not imply that Facebook has access to the private conversations of the users, some data such as the telephone number, times of use of the application, basic information of the profile, IP address, among others, will be available to the company led by Mark Zuckerberg.
The application also collects information on user activity, for example, related to settings, interaction with companies and frequencies, as well as device diagnostics (model, operating system, battery charge level, time zone, among others).
Telegram, The Russian App That Fights Whatsapp With Greater Privacy And With Memes
Since 2013, the creation of Russians Nikolai and Pavel Durov has become a very well-received service. With almost 500 million active users, this service offers similar features: free service for sending text messages, multimedia files, video and audio notes.
However, it maintains important functions that WhatsApp does not implement yet (or is on the way to implement recently).
First, it allows you to send files of up to 2 GB freely and easily in your chats.
On the other hand, it lets users create groups or informative channels of up to 200 thousand members, who meet for hobbies or preferences.
It also allows messages to self-destruct after a certain time.
Regarding privacy, Telegram uses the MTProto, one of the best forms of security in the market. Like WhatsApp, no one, not even them, should access the content of the chats on their platform.
On the other hand, it also allows secret conversations that disable the capture function of messages.
There is 2-step authentication, logging in with a password and an alternative method (like a text message). Also, you already have the option to log in on multiple devices.
“Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram is cloud-based messaging with constant synchronization. As a result, you can access your messages from different devices at the same time, including tablets and computers, and share an unlimited number of photos, videos and files (doc, zip, mp3, etc.) of up to 2 GB each. And if you do not want to store that data on your device, you can keep it in the cloud “, reports the application itself on its official website.
Although the app is free, and he swore it would continue like this, now he has announced that there will be paid content within the app. Fortunately, the common user will not be affected by this, but the large communities, which would have premium content such as the payment of an advertisement or unique stickers.
Signal, With Approval from Elon Musk And Edward Snowden
However, the one with the highest growth rate in recent days is Signal, after Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, recommended it.
She has been singled out for her privacy by Edward Snowden, the former CIA agent. The app minimizes the metadata that it collects and saves from its users, exactly the problem that many users are leaving WhatsApp.
Similar to Telegram, it also has messages that self-destruct, but they do keep screen captures blocking by default and can even hide the participant’s IP.
Signal is an open-source app and is on Github. In the platform, we find the codes of its version for iOS, Android and PC, which allows developers to access it and find any flaw or bug.
More than 100,000 users downloaded Signal from the Apple and Google app stores in the past two days, while Telegram racked up nearly 2.2 million downloads, according to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower.
Many people are confused about which app they should choose. The real reason why Signal is the preferred choice for people like Elon Musk and Edward Snowden is simply because it is a nonprofit organization.
They don’t want your money, and they don’t want to run ads. The entire application is financed by donors so there are no future prospects of Signal introducing any kind of ads on its platform.
Obviously, your choices aren’t just limited to Signal or Telegram. There are other platforms that are much more serious about your privacy than Whatsapp. For example, you have Line or WeChat as options too.
However, both of them take much more of your data as compared to Signal or Telegram. If you are really serious about your privacy and want to make sure that your data remains completely safe, you should absolutely not deviate from these two. But, if you just don’t want to give Facebook unprecedented access to your entire digital footprint online and want a suitable messaging online, you have several other choices to go through.
Originally Published on: https://theentrepreneurtalk.com/telegram-or-signal-best-alternatives-to-whatsapp-that-protect-user-privacy/
