You see, the new WhatsApp Privacy Policy states that it will share more data with its parent company Facebook and users who do not want this, can simply delete their WhatsApp Account. This has received a very poor response from people and now everyone is looking for an alternative to WhatsApp. In this article, we are going to do WhatsApp vs Telegram vs Signal app comparison and show you all the different things that all of the three platforms bring to the table, and then you have to decide which one you will use.
WhatsApp vs Telegram vs Signal
We will be doing a detailed analysis of WhatsApp vs Telegram vs Signal and will compare them on some of the very main and important parameters like security, privacy, and features.
Security and Privacy
In terms of security, WhatsApp is quite good as provides end-to-end encryption for every mode of communication that you use on WhatsApp, which makes your audio calls, video calls, and text messages end-to-end encrypted. This means that only you and the recipient of the messages can only read its contents. However, WhatsApp does not encrypt backups whether they are local or cloud. Also, it does not encrypt metadata, for the general public what that means is that metadata doesn’t let anyone read your messages but it lets authorities know about details like to whom, how long, and when you sent the messages to. That is more on the technical side of it now let’s talk about what security features does it bring to the users. Well, you get in-built app lock on both Android, iOS, you also get two-factor authentication which is really great these days. In terms of Privacy? Well, it is because of privacy issues that WhatsApp is in trouble in the first place. It collects a lot of data and shares it with Facebook so in terms of privacy, it is bad.
Telegram
In terms of security, Telegram isn’t one of the best apps, first of all, the end-to-end encryption feature isn’t enabled by default and you can only use end-to-end encryption with secret chats. The normal chats are encrypted on your device then sent to Telegram’s servers, decrypted, get encrypted again to send them to the receiver’s end. Do you see the problem? It’s Telegram that has encryption keys. That means you also can’t have end-to-end encryption in group chats. However, you do get the built-in app lock feature on Telegram. So in terms of security, Telegram is underwhelming. In terms of privacy, or collection of data in general, Telegram is a bit better compared to WhatsApp, as it collects only the contact info and contacts from you. That is still not good if it doesn’t have good security.
Signal
In the security domain, Signal can be the winner easily as it offers all the good security features and adds a little bit more to it. All the communication on Signal is encrypted and it elevates the game by encrypting the metadata too(which is missing on WhatsApp). Signal uses a technology called Sealed Sender which promotes anonymity as with this technology, no one(including Signal) will know that who is sending messages to whom. You get the option to lock Signal with biometrics or passcode, you also have two-factor authentication, and you can also block screenshots within the app. Signal also encrypts all the local files with a 4-digit passphrase so you can have a local encrypted backup too. Signal doesn’t collect any of your data whatsoever and it just collects your phone number with no intention to link it to your identity. So in terms of security, Signal is the best app in WhatsApp vs Telegram vs Signal comparison and it just beats the competition fairly.
Features
When talking about features, WhatsApp is one of the most complete apps out there. It has all the core features of a messaging app like chats, group chats, broadcast lists, sending photos, videos, documents(maximum limit for multimedia is 16MB and for documents is up to 100MB), and sharing contacts & live location It also gives additional cool features like the 24-hour status update which is like Stories on Instagram which is very fun and people enjoy posting on it a lot, UPI integration within the app for payments and transactions. The new features like WhatsApp UPI, the Dark Mode, and other functionality like effortless backup and restore using cloud services like Google Drive or iCloud, it just makes WhatsApp very fun to use.
Telegram
Telegram is very good with all the essential features like chats, audio calls, video calls (recently added), and you can have up to 2,00,000 members in a group which is insane and giant compared to WhatsApp’s limit of having just 256 group members. Even with all this, Telegram has way too many other features like the bots, and groups are just overloaded with content and that makes it too much. You can send files up to 1.5GB on Telegram which is really cool.
Signal
In terms of features, Signal is a very stock messaging app that lets you send messages, make audio, video calls and you can also make groups. However, you do not get the broadcast list feature. You also get group calling and a ‘Note to Self’ feature where you can type in your thoughts and everything. Signal also has to option to hide your IP address you can have an incognito keyboard and have a dark mode on. You also have your very own powerful image editor that can blur faces automatically before sending the images. So yes, it has all the stock messaging features but not the gimmicks. In the features battle between WhatsApp vs Telegram vs Signal, we can say that WhatsApp provides the most useful and good features.
Origin
Facebook owns WhatsApp now and with the New Privacy Policy, it will share more data with Facebook to give you targeted ads and whatnot. Facebook itself doesn’t have a very good reputation in terms of Security and Privacy and now WhatsApp is going in the same direction. There are talks about ads coming to WhatsApp too and this might be sooner than we expect. So, in general, now there are trust issues with WhatsApp.
Telegram
Telegram was launched by Nikolai Durov and his brother Pavel Durov in 2013. Pavel Durov was also dismissed from his CEI post from a Russian social media site after he refused to share data with Russian Security Agencies. You see such brave actions help to build trust. However, the closed-source encryption protocol has some doubts which should be cleared by the developers.
Signal
The Signal is owned by Signal Foundation (nonprofit foundation). The foundation is run by cryptographer Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton. Brian Acton was the co-founder of WhatsApp and left the company 3 years after Facebook acquired it. A lot of bright minds recommend using Signal including the giant Tech Entrepreneur himself, Mr. Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, and a lot of other good people too. The Signal is run by donations and you can also donate for its development.
Final Verdict
So that was all about WhatsApp vs Telegram vs Signal and the bottom line is that WhatsApp with its new update is scary and one should start looking for some alternative. Signal seems to be the best choice here as it is very secure, the privacy on it is very good and it has all the basic features that you would need from an IM app. Telegram on the other hand is very unique with all the bots and other cool features. It is a good time to start using Signal or Telegram and also get your friends on it so that you have a community there. Get used to the new environment and have some new interface.
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