11 Reasons why you should use Telegram instead of Whatsapp
By: Siraj Abbas
Tags: Technology, Messaging, Open Source, Telegram, Tech

Note: This article was initially published in 2017. There are lot of updates available for both platforms. I haven’t included all here.

WhatsApp is the most engaged top social messaging application owned by the giant Facebook corporation. It was one of the biggest gulps of acquisition at the time when Facebook brought WhatsApp. It is a known fact that the majority of the smartphone users are users of WhatsApp messenger. If there is a competent for WhatsApp, in all probability it might be the Telegram. But the freaks, geeks cult prefer Telegram than WhatsApp. Why? Here are the comparison points.

History

WhatsApp was incorporated in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, both former employees of Yahoo!. After Koum and Acton left Yahoo! in September 2007, the duo travelled to South America as a break from work. At one point they applied for jobs at Facebook but were rejected.

The telegram was launched in 2013 by brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, who previously founded the Russian social network VK, but had to leave the company after it was taken over by Mail.ru Group.

How is Telegram better than Whatsapp

Unlimited server storage

Telegram provides unlimited storage. This means all your text messages, images media files & documents will be saved on their cloud. You can log out and log in any number of times from any number of devices simultaneously without losing any data, you don’t need to worry about backup & restore. You can view the active sessions and see on which devices are you logged in now. Thereby you can download any file any time anywhere.

As of today, we can upload a single file of max size up to 2GB. There is no cap on the total number of files that can be uploaded.

2. Media compression

Users can choose whether to compress the image and video or send the uncompressed version.

For example, you can send a raw jpeg image either it as raw or compressed. If you want to preserve the quality as such then choose the option send it without compression.

3. Group member number capacity

As of today, a telegram group can afford a maximum of 200,000 members. For WhatsApp 256 is the maximum member capacity in a group.

4. Username feature

You can communicate with anyone on telegram even if you don't have the contact number of others. This ensures the privacy of the user’s contact number. You can continue to send messages in a group without revealing your phone number. I read somewhere that WhatsApp is now(2021 Jan) planning to bring that feature soon.

5. Channels

A channel is somewhat similar to groups, which can accommodate an unlimited number of members. The creator of the channel can decide who can post and other members can view the posts.

6 Multi-platform support

Telegram is available for Android, ios, windows phone, windows pc, Mac os, Linux OS, and even through any browser.

7. Secret chat

Secret chat is a kind of end to end encrypted chat in which one can set self-destruct timer. The messages will be automatically deleted when the timer hits. It is possibly not able to hack in any way.

8. Bots

It is a piece of program which is based on AI and machine learning at a small level. It can perform various tasks. For example, an image bot can fetch images from the name.

There are multiple types of bots. Popular bots are Image bot, sticker bot, gif bot.

9. Voice calls & Video calls

The latest version of telegram supports both voice & video calls which was missing for a long time compared to WhatsApp. The user experience of this feature in both platforms is almost thesame. There is no significant difference.

10. Sends any kind of file

Users can send any kind of file through Telegram. WhatsApp limits video, images & document type files which is very difficult for a good number of users.

11. Multiple sessions

Users on telegram can log in on multiple devices at the same time and able to receive messages on all devices.

They can remember their sessions on even browsers too. This is a cool feature.

You can keep messages in the draft as well. Suppose you are trying to send a message to another user. You typed a long paragraph and you decided to send it later. The draft message will be synced to all your devices and you can send it from another device.

Pros of Whatsapp

1. End to end encryption everywhere

WhatsApp uses end to end encryption everywhere. Telegram uses it only for secret chat.

2. More number of users are there in WhatsApp

WhatsApp has more users than telegram.

As per my experience, Telegram is far better than WhatsApp, many features and great updates regularly. so I prefer it more than WhatsApp.

WhatsApp’s new privacy policy has created a lot of uncertainties among the users and a good number of WhatsApp users searched for alternatives. I am happy that telegram has surpassed 500 million active users because of the mess. I am quoting the WhatsApp’s updated privacy policies impact below.

By agreeing with new terms and policy you will be effectively agreeing to Facebook and its subsidiaries having access to at least some of your data. Importantly, however, given WhatsApp’s use of end-to-end encryption, any messages, photos, and other content can still only be viewed by the sender and recipient.