Switch to Signal. It's not like there's anything to learn, the UI isn't all that different from WhatsApp
this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2025
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Element is ideal but no one uses it, Signal is still good and mostly similar to WhatsApp so easy to adopt. Telegram is utter garbage, bin it immediately in favour of one of the two above. Even if you swap it for WhatsApp it would be better than keeping Telegram.
why telegram is bad?
If you're familiar in any capacity with self hosted tech. Id suggest checking out matrix servers. I setup one for family and friends a few months back. Currently it's only running on a 2 core 8 gig ram vps with around 15 regular users, and ticks over fine. It's routinely used as a phone chat client like WhatsApp, as well as for voice channels instead of discord.
You can utilise multiple different clients; but I would suggest element, as they're the closest to WhatsApp, and therefore the easiest for people to adopt. (Afaik, it's the only matrix client with voice & video call support too).
Matrix servers run on the concept of decentralised federated servers, with the idea that as the technology expands, admins can federate with other matrix servers and allow cross communication (in much the same way the fediverse works).
I personally avoid telegram for anything sensitive or personal. Because there is no end to end encryption. You should move to Signal.
Threema. And don’t forget, real privacy and security, with centralized services, is never free. The app is tested by third party and is open source. And, you don’t have to share your phone number, unlike with Signal.
You no longer have to share your phone number in signal. They added a unique user identifier a while ago that you can share to add new contacts. This is not permanent by the way, you can change this user identifier anytime.
there's no learning curve with Signal, it's almost exactly like whatsapp.
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Collaborating with Xitter is not the most distasteful thing Telegram has done. Its marketing model has been to consistently lie to people about being encrypted when that's only true in very limited cases. It has also catered to criminals by attempting to make it difficult to comply with legal demands for information, while holding that information for its own purposes.
Signal, on the other hand is always encrypted and does its best to hold as little information about users as possible.
Also I don’t think it’s worth the effort to teach my parents yet another messaging app, like signal.
What is there to learn? Every popular messaging app has pretty much the same UI.
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Telegram was developed by Russians and HQ is in United Arab Emirates. They have always been sketchy af.
Telegram's owners are at odds with the Russian government though, hence the move to another country.
There's plenty of problems with Telegram without having to resort to Russophobia already.
For example their chats aren't even E2E-encrypted by default and afaik there's no way to have encrypted group chats either.
I really distrust telegram. There are some many dark patterns around it and the server is closed source so I'd say the distrust is very well deserved.
has there been cases where telegram chat been leaked/compromised?
Many. One particularly awful case is how at the beginning of ruzi invasion of Ukraine a lot several Russian resistance figures were compromised through Telegram due to it using phone numbers for security which are incredibly insecure and needless to say in control of the government.
Also I don’t think it’s worth the effort to teach my parents yet another messaging app, like signal.
My friend, just set up Signal on their phones, put it in place of the Telegram app and watch them not even notice anything changed.
Not if they're the kind of users my parents are. An update moves a button from the bottom-left to the bottom-right and suddenly "the app you gave me is broken again".
Also, don't sneak-change things on other people's phones.
I've heard good things about Signal, maybe try that?
I'd take Telegram over WhatsApp as I find Telegram, ignoring privacy concerns, is an excellent messenger. Much better than WhatsApp
But, Signal's pretty great.
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If you get rid of Telegran, at least you'd only have one shitty messenger instead of two.
I downloaded telegram about a year ago when I first heard about it. There is a feature to find and talk to people in the same area as me. It was all just escorts with nudes as their profile pics. I'm honestly surprised Google and Apple allowed it on their stores.
It’s actually easier to switch over if you’re using a specific app just for family chats. Imagine trying to convince them to switch if they used telegram to communicate with everyone else as well. I’d say take the chance and switch over to Signal while you still can. I moved my family over from viber to signal a long time ago and the transition wasn’t as hard as I expected.
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