In the last year we have been witness to the flourishing of numerous messaging Apps that want to take on WhatsApp: Line, BBM, WeChat, ChatOn, SpotBros… But up to now, they presented themselves as very similar alternatives with just one or two differences (like the ability to send stickers, or sending bigger, higher quality videos). That is the main reason why when I saw Telegram, I thought it was just another run-of-the-mill, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Telegram has been created by Pavel and Nikolai Durov, neither of them needs money thanks to the great success of VKontakte. Developing Telegram has taken them over 18 months of hard work and they believe it will show WhatsApp that a truly free App with an open source code and great privacy can take a good swing in the market.
To see to what extend these two fellows don’t need money, you can watch the video below where they throw money from a balcony.
How many people actually use Telegram?
Telegram is growing at a staggering rate. They currently have more than 5 million users, but right now they are growing at more than a million new users every day, a statistic that is totally off the charts. They are delivering 60 million messages every day, which is still far from the 400 million WhatsApp delivers on average, but seeing the incredible footsteps they are taking, it is impossible not to foresee a good future for them.
Security
In this day and age where security has become so critical, Telegram has a unique set of features that make it a really attractive alternative. It comes loaded with the ability to create secret chats. We can even configure a self-destruct timer for our messages!
It is really curious to see how the message evaporates as you chat. You can also block users if you don’t want them to contact you.
Telegram doesn’t forget about sending media. It allows sending all types of files up to 1Gb. This has allowed high res photos and HD videos to be shared easily. As usual, you can share your location.
To emphasize on privacy, the creators have made it very clear that all our cloud based storage regarding the app will be immediately destroyed if we delete our account at https://telegram.org/deactivate
Extreme security with a bounty
Thanks to Edward Snowden we caught a glimpse of how fragile our data is, this has generated a global paranoia against the NSA. Governments can read our WhatsApp conversations, but they can’t do so in Telegram. This is due to the advanced cryptographic algorithm it uses, as it creates the encryption keys on the actual device, meaning you would have to physically recover the keys form the device to actually decrypt messages. They are so sure this is unhackable that have placed a bounty and are offering a huge reward to however manages to breach their security.
You can watch the following video in phone arena if you want to see a detailed App review.
Or visit their official webpage
Pablo Clemente Pérez 