Most of us, as cyber-aware social media and messaging-using beings, must realize that all apps or services are not equal. Clearly, when it comes to ease of use, the user experience and features of every app are not the same as the other. However, on a more important front, all messaging apps are not equal where cybersecurity and privacy are concerned. This has come to be true especially in the past few years since a rise in the alternative, privacy, and security-minded applications have taken place. This rise coincides directly with the fact that there is enormous distrust towards mainstream products (especially in tech) and secondly the fact that dangerous cybercrime has taken center stage. As a result, internet users have also become more informed about the dangers of using internet-enabled services, especially mass platforms, which has led to a massive uptick in the usage of cybersecurity tools such as; Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), privacy-focused browsers, ad blockers, antimalware and antivirus programs, and much more.

More than half of the Earth today uses the internet, and a majority of the population has used (or has an account with) Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram (in descending order.) WhatsApp is by far the most used global mobile messaging service, and is owned by Meta (ex-Facebook.) As of October 2021, over two billion users were accessing the app and its features monthly. Other services do not even approach WhatsApp’s popularity. Aside from the fact that a mass social network like WhatsApp is such a great tool for all of us to use to be able to communicate instantly with our friends, family or others, there are great problems. WhatsApp is part of the old Facebook groupation. There have been several data breaches, data privacy scandals, leaks, snooping and a lot more. WhatsApp as well as the entire Facebook (now Meta) group which includes Instagram have experienced a sharp decline in user loyalty.

 

The Shift to Alternative Services Away From The Mainstream

As a result, millions of users have completely divorced big mainstream apps and joined others on new platforms like Telegram and Signal. Both of these platforms have been around since 2013 and 2014, respectively, however at the time only around 100,000 users were taking advantage of these platforms. Today, those figures have been completely eclipsed and hit way out of the ballpark into space, as it were. Over 550 million users today use Telegram, and over 100 million use Signal.

Soon, these numbers will be in the billions, as high-profile celebrities like Elon Musk and most famously Edward Snowden (and some others) endorse these security and privacy-minded products. The head of Signal, Brain Acton, stated the following “It’s a great opportunity for Signal to shine and to give people a choice and alternative. It was a slow burn for three years and then a huge explosion. Now the rocket is going.” Signal was downloaded 41 million times in January 2021, and 105 million times in May 2021.

Neither of the two new messaging apps is under the umbrella of a large, corporate company. One is founded by an American, the other (Telegram) by two Russians who also founded the ‘Russian Facebook’ known popularly as VK. Telegram is vast compared to Signal, but Signal shines where data privacy is concerned, although both will do the job and are a personal preference at the end of the day. Let’s compare them in this next section.

 

Telegram And Signal: WhatsApp Alternatives

Telegram and Signal differ in many ways, but their central brand vision is the same. Privacy and data security. Telegram is a for-profit company while Signal is a non-profit. Both apps are available on both the Android and iOS stores.

• Both are encrypted, but only Telegram’s Secure Chat is encrypted
• Telegram’s group chats are not encrypted, Signal’s are
• Telegram stores its chats on servers, Signal stores it on the users’ local device
• Both companies’ servers are not open source, but the apps themselves are
• Signal is able to blur faces in images, as opposed to Telegram
• Telegram can admit 200,000 in one chat group, while that number is 1000 for Signal
• Telegram can send much more data (2GB) than Signal can (100MB)
• Telegram also offers message sync for desktop, while Signal does not

Overall, a lot more trust lies with Signal because it has been confirmed that they cannot access user data, while the same is not true for Telegram. However, Telegram shines when in business and corporate environments where large chat groups and chunks of data need to be shared. Some researchers have also found that Signal’s encryption is more secure than that of Telegram, however this is also being disputed. Telegram’s terms of service do indicate that there is data collection of some sort. At the end of the day, the decision is up to you. Remember, you can also have a look at other apps too. Let’s look at that.

Alternatives to Signal and Telegram

It doesn’t endwith Signal and Telegram, far from it. There are a multitude of other messaging apps that are security and privacy-minded as alternatives to the two most popular ones we’ve talked about. Some of these are; Element, Threema, Wickr Me, Matrix, Line and Slack. Some others such as Tox are still being developed. Keep in mind, there are several more that have not been mentioned.

In time, it is certain that decentralized blockchain-enabled messaging services will emerge as the need and demand for privacy and peace of mind increases each day. End-to-end encryption is going to have to be standard for users if new messaging apps are to make it in the business. Also, users tend to prefer free apps, however that may not be a good business model for most. The mainstream is slowly being left behind, akin to stopping drinking Coca- Cola and opting for healthier alternatives. As Elon Musk said, we should all “join” in and protect our privacy and security.