Telegram is popular because of it's convenience, not security. I've tried using whatsapp and the app seemed so much inferior: no nicknames, crippled desktop cli

Telegram is popular because of it's convenience, not security. I've tried using whatsapp and the app seemed so much inferior: no nicknames, crippled desktop client, no separate contact list. It happened so that telegram became some kind of standart for formal chatting in my country (universities, businesses, journalists, officials use it) even thought it's blocked by ISPs (still works fine most of the time), I think mainly because you don't have to expose your phone number to be contacted and you can easily use it on desktop (also bots, I know one big store chain that uses tg bots for managing your bonus programme).