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I'm a little confused because you brought up Telegram specifically. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger offer the same level of security as Telegram. In fact, I th

I'm a little confused because you brought up Telegram specifically. WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger offer the same level of security as Telegram. In fact, I think WhastApp is more secure since it does E2E encryption by default. It's true that Telegram is about "fun" and not security. I just wasn't sure if you tried to imply Telegram is like Signal with a focus on fun as well, or you just meant most people don't care about security and would rather have fun chats?

m12k 6y ago
Telegram has optional E2E encryption (as does WhatsApp) which puts it ahead of Facebook Messenger. Unlike FB Messenger and WhatsApp, the company behind Telegram so far doesn't have a history of selling your personal data. I'd say it's fairly competitive, though obviously not ahead of Signal
- eitland 6y ago
  > Telegram has optional E2E encryption (as does WhatsApp) WhatsApp, for all its faults is E2E-encrypted by default and all the time. Not that it helps much unless you avoid activating backups and convince all your contacts to avoid backups. I don't like WhatsApp (anymore), but we should stick to the facts.
  - m12k 6y ago
    Thanks for setting the record straight. I actually thought you needed to opt in (was that maybe how it worked when they first added it?) but I'm glad to hear it's always on
- thekyle 6y ago
  Facebook Messenger also has optional E2E encryption in a feature called Secret Conversations which is very similar to Telegram's Secret Chats. A big difference though is that Facebook uses the Signal protocol while Telegram rolled their own.
eitland 6y ago
> WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger offer the same level of security as Telegram. If you look only at encryption, WhatsApp is even better. Once you factor in the fact that all your metadata is vacuumed into Facebooks data lake and that it might very well end up in Google Cloud if either you or someone you chat with activate cloud backups.
sedev 6y ago
Now that you mention it, I _did_ fail to explain why I brought up Telegram. My bad, thank you for calling me on that. I mentioned Telegram particularly because in my social circles, Telegram is number one by a long shot in terms of "people just want to be where their friends are and not feel left out." I should have actually said that, rather than jumping to the next part of the idea. (I am not here to defend Telegram's portrayal of itself as a secure messaging service — Telegram is grotesquely bad on that axis)
- umanwizard 6y ago
  That’s interesting. Do you live in a country where Telegram is particularly popular? Here in the US I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of someone using it. I don’t even know what the app icon looks like. My social circles are on some mix of Messenger, iMessage, Signal, WhatsApp, and if you count coworkers as social contacts, Slack.
  - samoa42 6y ago
    not op and aware this may not be representive, but i share the preference for telegram as a just-works, "fun" and high-penetration messenger with whatsapp as a first and sms as second compatability fallback. this beeing in germany. tg is light on resources like phone storage and bandwidth (and hence money) and has excellent multidevice support. apart from that i don't belive one can have a seriously private conversation involving a device running popular versions of android/ios.

m12k 6y ago

Telegram has optional E2E encryption (as does WhatsApp) which puts it ahead of Facebook Messenger. Unlike FB Messenger and WhatsApp, the company behind Telegram so far doesn't have a history of selling your personal data. I'd say it's fairly competitive, though obviously not ahead of Signal

eitland 6y ago
> Telegram has optional E2E encryption (as does WhatsApp) WhatsApp, for all its faults is E2E-encrypted by default and all the time. Not that it helps much unless you avoid activating backups and convince all your contacts to avoid backups. I don't like WhatsApp (anymore), but we should stick to the facts.
- m12k 6y ago
  Thanks for setting the record straight. I actually thought you needed to opt in (was that maybe how it worked when they first added it?) but I'm glad to hear it's always on
thekyle 6y ago
Facebook Messenger also has optional E2E encryption in a feature called Secret Conversations which is very similar to Telegram's Secret Chats. A big difference though is that Facebook uses the Signal protocol while Telegram rolled their own.

eitland 6y ago

> WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger offer the same level of security as Telegram. If you look only at encryption, WhatsApp is even better. Once you factor in the fact that all your metadata is vacuumed into Facebooks data lake and that it might very well end up in Google Cloud if either you or someone you chat with activate cloud backups.

sedev 6y ago

Now that you mention it, I _did_ fail to explain why I brought up Telegram. My bad, thank you for calling me on that. I mentioned Telegram particularly because in my social circles, Telegram is number one by a long shot in terms of "people just want to be where their friends are and not feel left out." I should have actually said that, rather than jumping to the next part of the idea. (I am not here to defend Telegram's portrayal of itself as a secure messaging service — Telegram is grotesquely bad on that axis)

umanwizard 6y ago
That’s interesting. Do you live in a country where Telegram is particularly popular? Here in the US I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of someone using it. I don’t even know what the app icon looks like. My social circles are on some mix of Messenger, iMessage, Signal, WhatsApp, and if you count coworkers as social contacts, Slack.
- samoa42 6y ago
  not op and aware this may not be representive, but i share the preference for telegram as a just-works, "fun" and high-penetration messenger with whatsapp as a first and sms as second compatability fallback. this beeing in germany. tg is light on resources like phone storage and bandwidth (and hence money) and has excellent multidevice support. apart from that i don't belive one can have a seriously private conversation involving a device running popular versions of android/ios.