WhatsApp or Telegram: A Better Chatting Service

Which is a better chatting service...WhatsApp or Telegram?

Thursday, 17th June 2021

In the course of this past year, Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook and WhatsApp were at the receiving end of harsh criticism over the notorious Cambridge Analytica data breach and their shortcomings in controlling fake data on their platforms.

On the other hand, Telegram was faced with legal issues from the Russians for not giving in to the demand of handing over private encryption keys of its users.

It is quite clear what the take on users’ privacy and data are for each of these services.

However, despite user displeasure with WhatsApp, the chat service continues to enjoy the status of the most widely used messaging app in the world as opposed to other services like Telegram and Signal. WhatsApp has over 2 billion monthly active users across the globe.

Also Read: Message States Google Meet and Zoom Hosts Can Detect Which Apps Are Used by Participants in the Background.

In January 2021, an alteration in WhatsApp's privacy policy has brought a significant downturn in their user base and tipped the scales slightly in favor of other apps like Telegram. Moreover, exclusive features such as secret chat, self-destructing messages, and encrypted backups are helping Telegram gather more popularity among users.

Unlike WhatsApp, telegram gives users a very specialized feature that helps them keep their files, photos, documents, and messages in cloud storage which can be later accessed by users by logging in from anywhere. An unlimited data storage facility is available in this cloud storage.

Files including photos, videos, audio of up to 16MB size can be sent in WhatsApp at a time, documents up to 100MB in size can be sent through this app where you also get the facility to backup and restore on Google Drive and iCloud.

In Telegram, you can share files up to 1.5 GB, create groups of up to 2 lakh people, and enjoy various unique features such as polls, quizzes, hashtags, etc.

In WhatsApp groups with a maximum of 256 participants can be created and video calls can be done with 8 people at the most.

While WhatsApp chats are encrypted end-to-end, those messages that are on the cloud, are not encrypted. Telegram on the other hand gives a 'secret chat' option that allows end-to-end encryption if the user wills. They can also install a self-destruct timer. Secret chats cannot be forwarded and the user receives a notification if a screenshot is taken.

Telegram supports multi-platform logging and users can log in from any device. WhatsApp however, allows login from just two devices at a time.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source:

India.com