Messaging apps need to do more than just let you talk to one person at a time. Social features are essential, and just having group chats doesn't cut the mustard anymore. Signal is probably the furthest behind here. I've done a fair amount of labor organizing in the last five years and I can say that Signal is an essential tool for any grassroots organization. The assurances of security and privacy cannot be beaten. However, it did not fare as well when it came to communicating with large groups or managing communities. Signal has shown it's capable of growing and adapting new features to a strict privacy model, however. WhatsApp has a big advantage here because of its sheer size. Building groups is easy on WhatsApp, but its Group Chats aren't as powerful or useful for community building. The new Communities feature might help, but we'll have to see. Its Status feature feels like an also-ran to Instagram's reels, and while its Broadcasts feature is extremely useful it's still just a BCC. Meta, meanwhile, is looking to consolidate its messaging platforms, putting a question mark on future social innovation with WhatsApp. Telegram, meanwhile, has transcended being a mere messaging service. The company iterated on its group messaging system creating a system that supports communities and even blog-style posts. Its more recent forays into live streaming suggest an ambitious expansion. Telegram is hands-down the best platform for social messaging. Success has a cost, though. Both WhatsApp and Telegram have seen misinformation spread widely through their respective networks. Telegram has notably been at the center of many social movements, especially internationally, and its influence cannot be understated. That company in particular needs to do a better job with moderating content and behavior on its platform.