Signal vs. Telegram

[Anta Assamey]

 

At the start of 2021, Signal and Telegram are on top of the app store charts. Both chat apps promise more privacy than WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and SMS. But there are some big differences between the two. Here’s what you should know—and which you should use.

 

What Signal and Telegram Have in Common

Signal and Telegram both advertise themselves as private and secure. Neither is owned by a big tech company. Signal is owned by a non-profit organization, while Telegram is owned by a for-profit company.

Both Signal and Telegram are chat apps with all the standard features, from stickers to photo and file transfers to voice and video calls.

Signal and Telegram both offer apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Each is free, and a phone number is all you need to sign up for either. Both offer optional desktop apps so that you can chat on a Windows PC, Mac, or Linux system, giving you the option to chat on your computer with its full keyboard.

Signal Has Better Privacy Features Than Telegram

Signal

Signal is built from the ground up for privacy, and it shows. All conversations and other communications on Signal are end-to-end encrypted between devices running Signal. The company in charge of Signal, the Signal Foundation, couldn’t even see your messages if it wanted to.

Telegram offers optional end-to-end encryption. You have to start a “Secret Chat.” In Signal, everything is a secret chat—by default, and always. All Telegram messages are encrypted between you and the Telegram server, but the company in charge of Telegram could technically view your messages on its server if it liked—unless you start a “Secret Chat.”

Also, in Telegram, you can’t have a group “Secret Chat.” You can only get end-to-end encryption in conversations between two people. Unlike Telegram, Signal offers encrypted group chats.

All your Signal conversations are stored only on your device by default. In Telegram, they’re stored on Telegram’s servers and can be synchronized between your devices. (You can still use Signal between multiple devices and synchronize messages from one device to another. But you can’t just log into Signal on the web and find all your conversations right there.)

Signal is completely open-source—both the code for the Signal clients and the code for the Signal server can be found on GitHub. The code for Telegram’s apps is open-source, but Telegram’s server software is not open-source.

Some security researchers have argued that Signal’s encryption protocol is better and more bulletproof than Telegram’s MTProto encryption protocol, although this is a complicated and disputed topic.

The Signal app is developed by the Signal Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by donations. Telegram is run by a for-profit corporation and has wrestled with a variety of plans to make money, including an ill-fated cryptocurrency offering.

Signal also has other built-in features around privacy, including the ability to automatically blur faces in the photos you send.

[MRI]

Telegram video call quality worst. Need high bandwidth internet. Signal gurinchi emi telidu. I have been using Telegram for Asian clients.

[r2d2]

3 minutes ago, MRI said:

Signal gurinchi emi telidu.

it had multiple issues since yesterday due to heavy traffic.. to be fair the increase in volume is unprecedented.. but their scalability seems suspect...