My mom uses Whatsapp. She bugged me about it until she finally got her first smartphone. An iPhone of course. The demographics of Whatsapp users is so wide and limitless. Everyone is on Whatsapp. If you see a person walking head bowed with phone in hand, there is a 95% chance of it being a chat on the popular Facebook-book owned IM app. The app which has more users than Twitter and has processed about 27 billion messages since its introduction however suffers some security flaws which can expose user messages to some determined hacker somewhere in the world. We aren't safe.
During my 3-day #internetdetox last weekend, my friend Kofi, decided to tempt me with the latest #socialapps and one which i grudgingly found interesting was Telegram , according to my tempter friend, it was just like Whatsapp but faster and more secure. I kindly reminded him of my objective for the weekend. After I had rejuvenated and shed off some data calories, i downloaded the app and tried it out. My verdict? Fabulous. Fast. Secure. Freaktastic. Simple. Different. Let me show you how the app works and i bet you that after by the end of this post, you will be a converter like me.
Fast. Like Super Fast!!!
A message sent through on 3G or WiFi takes just a second. I tried it on EDGE and it took 5secs! Yes i timed it! Which means its taking less data to send through and better savings for your pocket, innit? :) Also attaching photos also 7 seconds. I uploaded a 2.7Mb video whilst on WiFi and that took a minute which is pretty reasonable.
2. Attachments -
Just like Whatsapp, you can attach photos and videos and share location. Telegram enables you to attach Web Images and Documents. How cool is that? Sometimes when chatting with a friend, you just want to send a photo of a dress you saw on
webpage but the whole idea of opening the browser app, googling the site, finding the page and copying the link and pasting it in the chat is just sometimes crazy and unavoidable. Just type the image's name and several photos will show up, select and attach! Voila!
Attaching Web Images in a Telegram chat
Being able to attach a document is beyond cool for me especially when i have prospective clients asking for wedding photography quotations. I go to
for example and choose Open In option, which exports it to Telegram and then i choose who to send the document to. I just wish Apple would create folders to store documents in to make attaching easier. *Sighs*
3. More Secure.
Unlike Whatsapp keeping your messages on their server,
Telegram has a function called
which use end-to-end encryption ensuring that there is no trace left on their servers and the almost Tom Cruise Mission Impossible-like thing is the self-destructing messages which don’t allow forwarding. You know how people can easily forward sensitive chats onwards to god knows who? Well not in secret chats. You can create the self-destruct time from 2s to any customised time you want. Secret chats don’t have Cloud storage which is fine by me (I think)— they can only be accessed on their devices of origin. Ordinary chats work on
which they swear is mile safer than whats used on other chat apps.
4. All Functions Are Go!
There is Group Chat which gives you the choice to select who you want to be included in the chat. Its available on
too (now you can smile Droiders :) ) and i hear
its in two versions on GooglePlay.
I don't know why you don't already have Telegram. Do you want a more secure IM app? Telegram is your answer. Send me a telegram please. :)
UPDATE!
I just discovered today, that there are desktop alpha versions (use at your own risk) of OSX and Windows version for Telegram.
There also the app version for MacOSX Messenger for Telegram available for download.
Is it me or did my productivity just drop to frozen level? *sighs*
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