Founded by Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov, the Telegram application is an instant messaging service that has reached over a billion users on both 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, but also the sending of files of all kinds.
In 2024, Telegram has also integrated new features to gain traction. This year, stories for groups, the option of real-time sharing of location or even an improvement in the personalization of profiles have been added by the application in order to get closer to its competitors. But what exactly sets Telegram apart on the market?
What makes Telegram different from other instant messaging services?
Telegram has a big difference with competition like WhatsApp or Messenger: its privacy and data security policy. Telegram is in fact software using end-to-end encryption of calls, but also secret conversationswhich implies that only people affected by them can see shared messages.
The idea is that governments, companies or hackers cannot access these conversations, while normal discussions are encrypted but only from the client side to the server. 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’s servers.
How do secret conversations work?
Secret conversations are therefore one of the flagship functions of Telegram. They allowstart an end-to-end encrypted chat with one or more contacts. They are supplemented 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. Furthermore, it is also possible to completely delete a conversation if this is the user’s wish.
On the other hand, secret conversations remain limited overall: for example, they do not allow you to forward messages or take screenshots (and we understand why). Indeed, the goal being total confidentiality, taking screenshots would have a negative impact on the very principle of secret conversations.
Why is the Telegram application regularly subject to controversies of all kinds?
Telegram faces two types of recurring controversies. On the one hand, there are numerous reports of numerous scams of all kinds on the application. Indeed, some scammers pose as administrators or employees of a group, and offer dubious offers to users who sometimes let themselves be fooled. And obviously, since it is an encrypted service, it therefore becomes difficult for the user to prove these scams later.
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 bring together up to 200,000 people, it has been singled out for having been the gathering place for terrorists from the Daesh group, for example. In June 2023, Telegram was also used to round up 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 was talked about for its involvement in the case of anti-migrant riots in the United Kingdom.
On August 24, 2024, the creator of Telegram Pavel Dourov was arrested at Le Bourget airport as part of a search warrant: the boss of the application is notably accused of complicity and negligence regarding Telegram, where serious crimes (linked in particular to child crime or drug trafficking) frequently take place.
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 purposeswhich makes it one of the most criticized in the world.
What are the alternatives to Telegram?
If Telegram remains perfectly functional despite the arrest of its creator, there are still various alternatives accessible to everyone. First, we can obviously address the obvious WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or Slack, but these offer lower levels of privacy than secret Telegram 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 particularly the case for Signal, which offers end-to-end encryption while offering an interface accessible to all. Signal 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.
Thus, all communications between Signal users are end-to-end encrypted by default, and encryption keys are generated and stored by each user’s applications. In other words, it is an even more relevant option than Telegram when security and data privacy are important. Indeed, as we have seen, Telegram only offers end-to-end encryption for secret conversations.
