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What's the difference between this and Telegram? I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with what messaging app I'm supposed to use. Also, why is ios8 required?

by jscheel 12y ago

petermonsson 12y ago
Signal does voice calling too.
cryptomilk 12y ago
Signal/TextSecure is Free Open Source Software. There is no company behind the development of the App. It is the Software with the best security model so far. The cryptography behind Telegram is not what you would expect of todays crypto standards. A lot of security researcher have commented on this already.
- aw3c2 12y ago
  Sure there is a company (Whispersystems) doing most the work behind it. As they state: "dedicated development is supported by community donations and grants". This is good, it allows for very focused development.
  - nzp 12y ago
    Open WhisperSystems isn't a company. WhisperSystems was a company, it was acquired by Twitter which open sourced TextSecure. OWS, is just a name for the community effort around these tools: https://whispersystems.org/about/ https://whispersystems.org/about/
mayneack 12y ago
Is telegram open source? I didn't see it obviously linked from their website.
- Redoubts 12y ago
  They publish source for their client programs (some even are GP v3), but they keep the server side stuff to themselves.
moxie 12y ago
I'm a Signal/TextSecure contributor. There's been a lot of controversy over the Telegram encryption protocol, and any cryptographer that looks at it cringes. Beyond doubts with the protocol itself, I think the more important consideration is that most people never use it. Telegram is not encrypted by default. Users have to create a special "secret chat" with contacts that is ephemeral, and some Telegram clients don't even support that mode. Last I checked, there was no way to have group "secret chats" in any client at all. The result is an unfortunate situation where many users seem to think that Telegram is somehow secure by default, when it definitely isn't. Telegram even stores plaintext copies of everyone's entire message history on the server for multi-device sync.
- rakoo 12y ago
  > I'm a Signal/TextSecure contributor. That's a bit of an understatement. Anyway, thank you for your work, and congratulations for the release !
- jscheel 12y ago
  Awesome, thanks for taking a moment to explain that for me!

What's the difference between this and Telegram? I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with what messaging app I'm supposed to use. Also, why is ios8 required?

by jscheel 12y ago

What's the difference between this and Telegram? I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed with what messaging app I'm supposed to use. Also, why is ios8 required?

petermonsson 12y ago

Signal does voice calling too.

cryptomilk 12y ago

Signal/TextSecure is Free Open Source Software. There is no company behind the development of the App. It is the Software with the best security model so far. The cryptography behind Telegram is not what you would expect of todays crypto standards. A lot of security researcher have commented on this already.

aw3c2 12y ago
Sure there is a company (Whispersystems) doing most the work behind it. As they state: "dedicated development is supported by community donations and grants". This is good, it allows for very focused development.
- nzp 12y ago
  Open WhisperSystems isn't a company. WhisperSystems was a company, it was acquired by Twitter which open sourced TextSecure. OWS, is just a name for the community effort around these tools: https://whispersystems.org/about/ https://whispersystems.org/about/

mayneack 12y ago

Is telegram open source? I didn't see it obviously linked from their website.

Redoubts 12y ago
They publish source for their client programs (some even are GP v3), but they keep the server side stuff to themselves.

moxie 12y ago

I'm a Signal/TextSecure contributor. There's been a lot of controversy over the Telegram encryption protocol, and any cryptographer that looks at it cringes. Beyond doubts with the protocol itself, I think the more important consideration is that most people never use it. Telegram is not encrypted by default. Users have to create a special "secret chat" with contacts that is ephemeral, and some Telegram clients don't even support that mode. Last I checked, there was no way to have group "secret chats" in any client at all. The result is an unfortunate situation where many users seem to think that Telegram is somehow secure by default, when it definitely isn't. Telegram even stores plaintext copies of everyone's entire message history on the server for multi-device sync.

rakoo 12y ago
> I'm a Signal/TextSecure contributor. That's a bit of an understatement. Anyway, thank you for your work, and congratulations for the release !
jscheel 12y ago
Awesome, thanks for taking a moment to explain that for me!