I was a user on Telegram from India.
Telegram is not sending text messages because I don’t have a premium account. And many features are locked in premium.
Currently, Telegram doesn’t allow users to create or log in to accounts via third-party apps. Also, I need an official telegram (a must from the Play Store). (Not even the apk from their own website.) To receive a login code.
Do you guys ever feel that telegram has become so much worse?
Last time I checked, the secret chats had some severe downsides that make them unusable as normal chats.
And if you want to bring open-source to the conversation: Signal is AGPL licensed, both the apps and backend. Not that it matters because of the E2E encryption.
I agree signal is superior, but this post is about telegram.
What are the downsides of the secret chats?
https://www.securemessagingapps.com/
In the comparison chart telegram’s not ideal, but it’s far from the worst.
Telegram does have a lot of benefits that simplex and signal don’t. Nearly a billion people have it installed. You can connect to people using just aliases without giving away your phone number. So there is utility there
One downside is that secret chats are mobile-only. Not supported at all on PCs and laptops, with the official client at least.
That’s inconvenient, I admit.
There’s a certain philosophy saying that secret chats not being portable is more secure. That means you’re not exporting the secret keys to multiple devices. I realize signal achieves this by signing the secret chats with multiple keys instead of passing the key around. It does reduce your risk surface.