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> - It offers you to simply share an alphanumeric handle and you can connect with anyone in the world. I can do a voice chat or normal chat really quickly and e
by Macha 4y ago
> - It offers you to simply share an alphanumeric handle and you can connect with anyone in the world. I can do a voice chat or normal chat really quickly and easily. It is the only famous truly Instant Messenger there is. And I can do it without sharing my name (unlike FB), email address, or phone number (unlike WApp).
Has this changed? Last time I looked, you needed a phone number to sign up.
- izacus 4y agoWhile you MAY need a number to sign up, you don't need to GIVE your number to other people so you can communicate with them over the service.
- okamiueru 4y agoI don't understand. I've been using telegram for some years. Could you explain how you would go about using telegram without "signing up"? And by "a number" I understand it to be an option of "not your phone number"? How does the verification go then?
- skyyler 4y agoI believe they are saying that Telegram doesn't expose your phone number to other users on the app unless you explicitly allow it to. I only use Telegram, no WhatsApp / Messenger so I had no idea that this was normal for other chat apps. Terrifying.
- Macha 4y agoWhatsapp shows the phone number as it is your user identifier (and I believe this is also true for Signal). This is not true for Messenger, where it's your facebook account as your identifier.
- Macha 4y agoI think from the reply that they're talking about "Your contacts do not need your phone number, they can message you with just your telegram screen name", but this is different from "Telegram needs your phone number" and "People with your phone number can find your Telegram account from their contacts".
- rg111 4y agoYou still need a phone number to sign up, but you can lose the number (I don't recommend it, but I did do it). Telegram have your phone number. But you need not share it with anyone else to connect.