Michal Ždanský She was for Facebook purchase WhatsApp probably a good investment and for the small team behind this startup 16 billion was an offer not to be denied. However, this acquisition was not a win for everyone. It left many Facebook detractors bitter in the mouth, whose popular SMS substitute has become another tool of a greedy corporation that does not hesitate to sell our personal data to advertisers while repeatedly violating our privacy.
So it's no wonder people started looking for alternatives. There are more than enough of them in the App Store, but one of them has suddenly become very popular. This is Telegram Messenger. The service was launched only in October last year and is currently one of the fastest growing services in the App Store. Telegram is officially available only for iOS and Android, however, it presents itself as an open-source project and offers comprehensive APIs, thanks to which it is possible to create unofficial clients for other platforms. Therefore, Telegram can also be used on Windows Phone, even if it is from a different developer.
After the announcement of the acquisition of WhatsApp, the service experienced such unprecedented interest that it had to significantly increase the capacity of servers and selectively turn off some functions to handle the onslaught of new users. On February 23 alone, the day WhatsApp had a nearly three-hour outage, five million people signed up for the service. Even without outages, however, several million people register for Telegram Messenger every day.
And what actually makes Telegram so attractive? At first glance, it is more or less a copy of WhatsApp, both functionally and visually. The authors did not try too hard for originality, and except for a few small things, the applications are almost interchangeable. You register using your mobile number, your contacts are linked to the address book, the chat window is unrecognizable from WhatsApp, including the background, you can also send photos, videos or location in addition to text...
However, there are significant functional differences. First of all, Telegram cannot send audio recordings. On the other hand, it can send a photo as a document without its compression. The most interesting thing is the security of communication. It is encrypted via the cloud and, according to the authors, is more secure than WhatsApp. In addition, you can start a so-called secret chat in the application, where encryption takes place on both end devices and the communication is practically impossible to intercept. It is also worth noting the speed of the application, which significantly surpasses WhatsApp, especially in sending messages.
Telegram has no business plan or exit plan, the service is operated completely free of charge and the authors rely on subsidies from users. If they are not enough, they are determined to add paid features to the application, which, however, will not be necessary for the operation of the application, as in the case of a subscription with WhatsApp. This would probably be special stickers, maybe color schemes and the like.
Telegram Messenger clearly benefits from users' skepticism towards Facebook, and that outage also helped in growth, but it is difficult to estimate how long this rapid growth will last and whether users will actually remain active with the service. Another problem may be that no one you know uses it. After all, while there are over 20 active people reporting in my WhatsApp address book, there is only one in Telegram Messenger. So if you want to switch from a Facebook-owned service for good, it will mean a lot of convincing from your friends, acquaintances and family.
[app url=”https://itunes.apple.com/cz/app/telegram-messenger/id686449807?mt=8″]
I personally prefer groupme https://groupme.com
…and when I convince all my friends and family, Telegram Messenger will be bought by a company similar to FB.
What's the problem with WhatsApp buying FB? I personally use WA even though I don't have FB and never will. But I don't feel anything on the application. I don't understand the panic. Thanks
WA sorts the data and sells it via FB to companies that use it for advertising and price optimization.
Sure, advertising, but that's about it, isn't it? Well, I use iMessenger in iOS and possibly Viber, which also provides me with valuable calls.
It's more about the fact that the more you know about a certain group of people, the more you can manipulate it and create the conditions to which individuals must adapt. Otherwise they have your number and name.
You don't even need to have FB anymore, they actually have you now. So another sheep in their flock (nothing bad) and another valid registration for them, even by phone.
They have my number. I don't know the name and nothing else. And a number without a name is useless. Knowing a number and not knowing who it belongs to is a good thing. I don't have any other data in the application. If the app can clean the phone, of course I can. But I doubt it.
It's a bit of a naive idea for FB fed by advertising, but let them just have a number and that's enough for them. They start calling with loan offers and so on. Of course, I don't mean FB, but the companies they sell the numbers to. And even with that number, anything can be connected in the end.
So there is only a risk of potential harassment in the form of unanswered calls, I deleted it anyway and canceled the account, there are better messengers, see my reaction to radimon
BTW-advertising is everywhere