15 ms·

Despite its imperfections, which in my cursory understanding are largely academic, Telegram is an amazing messenger. It's very quick, feature-rich, and develop

by m52go 9y ago

Despite its imperfections, which in my cursory understanding are largely academic, Telegram is an amazing messenger. It's very quick, feature-rich, and developer-friendly. Perhaps best of all, it's a nonprofit. So I can expect, with a high degree of confidence, that the organization won't abruptly switch course one day to appease investors.

Johnny_Brahms 9y ago
The criticism is only about the crypto, which is weird and historically unsafe (and not on by default). Other than that it is a great app. Some of us just think the bar is e2e by default.
dzink 9y ago
A non-profit simply means that it cannot hold money from one year to the next. To achieve that, a "non-profit" could give millions as executive compensation or contract inefficiently to for-profit "partners" who collect the gains. Not saying Telegram is doing that, but the structure shouldn't be adding to a vote of confidence in any way.
Aloha 9y ago
Telegram has solved the communications problem for me mostly. Before telegram, I had, all of the legacy messenger services (AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Skype, etc), plus Slack, IRC and whatever I used at work - now I have Telegram, and no longer sign into those legacy services anymore. What makes telegram a winner for me is that the desktop is a first class citizen, I'm in front of a computer like 18 hours a day - I don't want to have to stop what I'm going and respond on my phone. Yes, perhaps Signal is more secure, and I may try it someday.. but for now.. Telegram has largely solved my 'communications' problem.
- mullsork 9y ago
  Are you using Telegram instead of Slack at work?
  - la_oveja 9y ago
    I know few people who do.
  - Aloha 9y ago
    Work is still skype for business, plus iMessage between co-workers.
- lmm 9y ago
  Discord has done that for me, but only because all my friend groups are willing to use it. If you just want a messenger that works well, there are a number of good options - that unfortunately don't talk to each other.
fullsage 9y ago
> Perhaps best of all, it's a nonprofit. That doesn't appear to be true: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/11/23/the-secret-american-origins-of-telegram-the-encrypted-messaging-app-favored-by-the-islamic-state/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/11... If they're a nonprofit, where is their 990 (or equivalent)?
whyoh 9y ago
>Despite its imperfections, which in my cursory understanding are largely academic 1) no video calls 2) voice calls just now being rolled out 3) encryption is opt-in and limited to one-on-one conversations 4) requires a phone number for authentication The "academic" criticism is about its crypto being poor. The rest is regular stuff which is a deal breaker even for many non-academics.

by m52go 9y ago

Johnny_Brahms 9y ago

The criticism is only about the crypto, which is weird and historically unsafe (and not on by default). Other than that it is a great app. Some of us just think the bar is e2e by default.

dzink 9y ago

A non-profit simply means that it cannot hold money from one year to the next. To achieve that, a "non-profit" could give millions as executive compensation or contract inefficiently to for-profit "partners" who collect the gains. Not saying Telegram is doing that, but the structure shouldn't be adding to a vote of confidence in any way.

Aloha 9y ago

Telegram has solved the communications problem for me mostly. Before telegram, I had, all of the legacy messenger services (AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Skype, etc), plus Slack, IRC and whatever I used at work - now I have Telegram, and no longer sign into those legacy services anymore. What makes telegram a winner for me is that the desktop is a first class citizen, I'm in front of a computer like 18 hours a day - I don't want to have to stop what I'm going and respond on my phone. Yes, perhaps Signal is more secure, and I may try it someday.. but for now.. Telegram has largely solved my 'communications' problem.

mullsork 9y ago
Are you using Telegram instead of Slack at work?
- la_oveja 9y ago
  I know few people who do.
- Aloha 9y ago
  Work is still skype for business, plus iMessage between co-workers.
lmm 9y ago
Discord has done that for me, but only because all my friend groups are willing to use it. If you just want a messenger that works well, there are a number of good options - that unfortunately don't talk to each other.

fullsage 9y ago

> Perhaps best of all, it's a nonprofit. That doesn't appear to be true: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/11/23/the-secret-american-origins-of-telegram-the-encrypted-messaging-app-favored-by-the-islamic-state/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/11... If they're a nonprofit, where is their 990 (or equivalent)?

whyoh 9y ago

>Despite its imperfections, which in my cursory understanding are largely academic 1) no video calls 2) voice calls just now being rolled out 3) encryption is opt-in and limited to one-on-one conversations 4) requires a phone number for authentication The "academic" criticism is about its crypto being poor. The rest is regular stuff which is a deal breaker even for many non-academics.