It was all over the Internet when WhatsApp exposed their new privacy policy (which is very far from the definition of privacy). To put it short and simple to comprehend, basically all of our conversations with anyone are no longer between the recipient and the sender. So, do not feel weird if you are conversing about something and as you were scrolling Facebook and Instagram, an ad related to your conversation appears.
That catastrophe has definitely made the users have a change of heart, obviously. The closest option next to WhatsApp is Telegram. Because of that, Telegram’s number of downloads has been increasing drastically. Telegram has gained 25 millions new downloads after the speculations revolving WhatsApp made. The app has now reached 500 million active monthly users, gaining steadily on competitor Whatsapp, which has more than 2 billion users.
To change is a basic norm but here are the comparisons, even at the slightest, between WhatsApp and Telegram.
Both apps works well in terms of messaging and voice as well as video calls. They even support group messaging and media sharing. From the surface, these messaging apps are basically the same.
No, they’re not. Not until this recent WhatsApp came up with features such ‘Disappearing Message’ and ‘Delete for Everyone’. These features are, however, featured on Telegram even way sooner.
Moving on to the next point is Group Chats which both have in common. WhatsApp lets you add up to 256 group members and Telegram deep inhale allows you to 200,000 members in a group. Only WhatsApp has group video call and Telegram still is in the beta phase for that one.
WhatsApp has a Status feature which is a feature ‘Instagram story’ likewise and Telegram has not. One can send videos up to 16MB and other files up to 100MB and Telegram permits you to send approaching 2GB of files.
Let’s talk about security now as that’s the issue WhatsApp try to make with us now.
WhatsApp boasts its End-to-End encryption on all chats so all your messages, calls, photos, and everything else is encrypted and only you and the recipient can read the messages. WhatsApp also offers a fingerprint lock feature as well as two-factor authentication. Telegram on the other hand are user-to-server encrypted but they made up with Secret Chats feature and built-in app lock.
Also, WhatsApp collects most of data we have such as Device ID, Advertising Data, Purchase History, Location, Phone Number, Email, Contacts, Payment Info among others. Telegram just collect your contact info, phone number and user ID.
Other features that these apps have are totally different from each other. WhatsApp, with huge fanbase it has, it came with WhatsApp Pay feature as well as WhatsApp Business to support SMEs. Telegram is more lightweight than WhatsApp as they prepare features like bots (you can play games on Telegram), channels and hashtags.
They are not thoroughly good or vice versa but there must be something for us to compare for our own sake. Choose wisely which apps that cater satisfaction for your needs of safety as well as personal preferences.
