4 ms·

If I understand correctly, Telegram has native apps on all platforms, and they are super fast and slick.

by nlitened 5y ago

richardstephens 5y ago
Telegram's mac app is pretty good at least, but I don't think it's a serious contender for any 100+ seat company.
- drclau 5y ago
  I think GP's point was that it's doable (ie. providing native apps for all platforms), not that Telegram is a good replacement for Teams scenarios.
samat 5y ago
They are the one example of messaging done right on the client side. And it maddens me that their whole team, including ops and backend is like 50 people. At the same time, they used some pretty unconventional ways to find brilliant people. For example, for iOS and Mac and android apps, they simply held a contest for the best open source app fitting succinct and reasonable requirements. The winner got sizable prize and place on the dev team. Then they released that app as a Telegram X and then gradually sunset the older app. Pretty neat on multiple fronts.
- voidfunc 5y ago
  Yep Telegram the app is perhaps one of the best pieces of software I have used. It really shows what a good team can pull off.
- ratww 5y ago
  > And it maddens me that their whole team, including ops and backend is like 50 people. But that's how they get so much accomplished. Fred Brooks was correct in 1975 and is still right in 2021. Throwing headcount at a problem only delays it.
  - marcosdumay 5y ago
    > and is still right in 2021 That's a huge understatement. When development tools improve and people get more productive, that observation gets more and more correct. Thus, he is much more correct now than he was in 1975. And he was pretty much right by that time.
jodrellblank 5y ago
I've never used Telegram, but I suspect the Teams integration with SharePoint/Office365 and the (terrible) way Teams tries to be cake icing and floor wax by integrating file store, wiki, document library, telephone, whiteboard, plugin app ecosystem and webhook scripting environment with Windows ACLs makes it more complex than an independent chat/call/video call program?
- kaba0 5y ago
  Perhaps a bit? But as others wrote, they have 50 people. How many does Microsoft have (and of course, Google, Facebook are also bad at it)
  - jodrellblank 5y ago
    Microsoft has 160,000. Don't get me wrong, I loathe Teams and its laggish bullshit nature as much as the rest of the pitchfork wielding people in this thread, it's just that it's not apples-to-apples comparison with a pure chat/call client and the headcount needed to develop it because of how much extra junk is hiding in Teams.
    - mindri0t 5y ago
      I agree with your point however it just goes to reinforce that part of the failure of teams is that it kind of does a lot of things but it does all those things really badly. If they had some notion of a product vision, some focus, some opinions and executed on those with a users first attitude then it might not be in such a sorry state and it would probably be a whole lot easier to deliver great native experiences. IMHO a big part of the problem is this idea of just throwing features at applications without designing an actual product that seems to be extremely popular but always dreadful. Do less and deliver excellence, don’t do everything half arsed and throw more adverts at the resulting problem.

If I understand correctly, Telegram has native apps on all platforms, and they are super fast and slick.

richardstephens 5y ago

Telegram's mac app is pretty good at least, but I don't think it's a serious contender for any 100+ seat company.

drclau 5y ago
I think GP's point was that it's doable (ie. providing native apps for all platforms), not that Telegram is a good replacement for Teams scenarios.

samat 5y ago

They are the one example of messaging done right on the client side. And it maddens me that their whole team, including ops and backend is like 50 people. At the same time, they used some pretty unconventional ways to find brilliant people. For example, for iOS and Mac and android apps, they simply held a contest for the best open source app fitting succinct and reasonable requirements. The winner got sizable prize and place on the dev team. Then they released that app as a Telegram X and then gradually sunset the older app. Pretty neat on multiple fronts.

voidfunc 5y ago
Yep Telegram the app is perhaps one of the best pieces of software I have used. It really shows what a good team can pull off.
ratww 5y ago
> And it maddens me that their whole team, including ops and backend is like 50 people. But that's how they get so much accomplished. Fred Brooks was correct in 1975 and is still right in 2021. Throwing headcount at a problem only delays it.
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  > and is still right in 2021 That's a huge understatement. When development tools improve and people get more productive, that observation gets more and more correct. Thus, he is much more correct now than he was in 1975. And he was pretty much right by that time.

jodrellblank 5y ago

I've never used Telegram, but I suspect the Teams integration with SharePoint/Office365 and the (terrible) way Teams tries to be cake icing and floor wax by integrating file store, wiki, document library, telephone, whiteboard, plugin app ecosystem and webhook scripting environment with Windows ACLs makes it more complex than an independent chat/call/video call program?

kaba0 5y ago
Perhaps a bit? But as others wrote, they have 50 people. How many does Microsoft have (and of course, Google, Facebook are also bad at it)
- jodrellblank 5y ago
  Microsoft has 160,000. Don't get me wrong, I loathe Teams and its laggish bullshit nature as much as the rest of the pitchfork wielding people in this thread, it's just that it's not apples-to-apples comparison with a pure chat/call client and the headcount needed to develop it because of how much extra junk is hiding in Teams.
  - mindri0t 5y ago
    I agree with your point however it just goes to reinforce that part of the failure of teams is that it kind of does a lot of things but it does all those things really badly. If they had some notion of a product vision, some focus, some opinions and executed on those with a users first attitude then it might not be in such a sorry state and it would probably be a whole lot easier to deliver great native experiences. IMHO a big part of the problem is this idea of just throwing features at applications without designing an actual product that seems to be extremely popular but always dreadful. Do less and deliver excellence, don’t do everything half arsed and throw more adverts at the resulting problem.