Telegram: everything you need to know about the secret messaging app

© Amin Moshrefi/Unsplash

Founded by Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov, the Telegram app is an instant messaging service that has reached over a billion users in both on iOS and Android. In essence, Telegram works like any other messaging app: you log in to send messages to close contacts or entire groups of people. As a bonus, Telegram also allows audio and video calls, as well as sending files of all kinds.

In 2024, Telegram also integrated new features to gain traction. This year, stories for groups, the option to share location in real time, and improved profile customization were added by the application in order to get closer to its competitors. But what makes Telegram stand out on the market, precisely ?

What makes Telegram different from other instant messaging services ?

Telegram has a major difference with competitors like WhatsApp or Messenger: its privacy and data security policy. Telegram is indeed a software that uses end-to-end encryption of calls, but also secret conversations, which means that only the people concerned by the latter can see the shared messages.

© Telegram

In theory, governments, companies or hackers cannot access these conversations, while normal chats are encrypted but only from the client to the server side. Telegram does not allow encryption by default on all messages (as is the case on Signal for example): in other words, ordinary messages are stored on Telegram servers.

How Secret Chats Work ?

Secret Chats are therefore part of the flagship functions of Telegram. They allow you tostart an end-to-end encrypted chat with one or more contacts. They are complemented by another original feature: the message timer. Thanks to the latter, it is possible to delete certain messages from a conversation on a specific date previously determined. In addition, it is also possible to completely delete a conversation if this is the user's wish.

© Unsplash/Christian Wiediger

On the other hand, secret conversations remain limited overall: for example, they do not allow you to transfer messages or take screenshots (and we understand why). Indeed, since the goal is total confidentiality, taking screenshots would have a negative impact on the very principle of secret conversations.

Why the Telegram application is -she is regularly the subject of controversies of all kinds ?

Telegram faces two types of recurring controversies. On the one hand, there are numerous reports of all kinds of scams on the application. Indeed, some scammers pretend to be administrators or employees of a group, and offer dubious offers to users who sometimes fall for it. And of course, since it is an encrypted service, it becomes difficult for the user to prove these scams afterwards.

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On the other hand, Telegram is often named as a hotbed of different extremist groups. Since the application allows any user to create their own private broadcast channel that can gather up to 200,000 people, it has been singled out for being a gathering place for terrorists from the Daesh group, for example. In June 2023, Telegram was also used to rally French rioters after the death of young Nahel.

It was also through Telegram that a group of white supremacists gathered during the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. And, more recently, the application has been in the news for its involvement in the anti-migrant riots in the United Kingdom.

On August 24, 2024, Telegram creator Pavel Durov was arrested at Le Bourget airport as part of a search warrant: the owner of the application is notably accused of complicity and negligence regarding Telegram, where serious crimes (particularly related to pedophilia or the drug trafficking) frequently take place.

© Shutterstock/Poetra.RH

Overall, while the security and data privacy features enabled by Telegram are a good thing for the freedom of ordinary users, the application is also widely used for malicious purposes, which makes it one of the most criticized in the world.

What are the alternatives to Telegram?

While Telegram remains perfectly functional despite the arrest of its creator, there are nevertheless various alternatives accessible to all. First, we can obviously discuss the obvious WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Slack, but these offer lower levels of confidentiality than Telegram's secret conversations. The same goes for Discord, which obviously cannot be considered a confidential messaging tool.

Other lesser-known alternatives nevertheless offer a more complete and more secure service than Telegram. This is notably the case of Signal, which offers end-to-end encryption while offering an interface accessible to all. Signal thus allows you to send written, voice and video messages to other users of the application. Voice calls are encrypted by ZRTP and text exchanges are encrypted by the free protocol aptly named Signal.

© Signal

Thus, all communications between Signal users are end-to-end encrypted by default, and the encryption keys are generated and stored by each user's applications. In other words, This is an even more relevant option than Telegram when you value data security and confidentiality. Indeed, as we have seen, Telegram only offers end-to-end encryption for secret conversations.

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