TELEGRAM: THE BEST MESSAGING APP OR JUST A HYPE? PART1

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Repository

https://github.com/DrKLO/Telegram

Introduction

Telegram is a messaging app with a focus on speed and security, it’s super-fast, simple and free. You can use Telegram on all your devices at the same time — your messages sync seamlessly across any number of your phones, tablets or computers.
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Telegram was first released in August 2013, just about 5 years ago. But with the help of breakthrough and innovative technologies, it has since evolved to become a major competitor to other chat application especially WhatsApp. In recent years, old-timers like WhatsApp who have been in the game for about 10 years have been accused of copying ideas from Telegram.

I started using WhatsApp about 9 years ago and only recently started using Telegram about a year ago. They both come with their pros and cons, and in the end, it all boils down to personal choice and preference.

MAJOR TALKING POINTS

1. Available Platforms / Devices

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Telegram is available on Android, iPhone/iPad and Windows Phone which accounts for a large chunk of the global device market. There is also a Web‑version, a version for macOS and another for PC/Mac/Linux.

This diversity in options makes Telegram really easily flexible and accessible. I don't have to be with my phone in order to make any communication as we see in other chat application. On WhatsApp, in order to use the web version, I must be with my phone to complete authentication.

Telegram is available in 14 languages, giving it a good market penetration to many nations and users. Telegram is completely free; no ads, no subscriptions under the GNU GPLv2 or GPLv3 license.

2. Interface

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The interface for Telegram and WhatsApp look very much alike aside from the colour differences, a call and contacts menu for Whatsapp. Knowledge of one application gives you a smooth and painless transition into the other.

The interface of Telegram comes with its official colours of blue and white. The design is basic and doesn't carry any additional features. Personally, I like blue and white, so Telegram gives me a feeling of home and ease.

Note: I didn't use personal screenshots because of privacy concerns

3. Storage and Back up

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Telegram has cloud storage. All your text messages, images media files & documents are saved on the cloud. With the availability of Telegram on multiple platforms, you can have access to all your Telegram resources in real-time on whatever device or platform you are currently active, you don’t need to worry about backup & restore

WhatsApp, on the other hand, backs up your chats and files on the memory of your phone in an encrypted file format. You have the option to further back it up on your Google drive and restore on another device or maybe you did a hard reset on your phone. You can also set the frequency of backup or choose to never back up.

4. Group Chat

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Group chat has become a common thing on chat messengers, it could be a school group, a work-place group or even a religious group etc. It has become something we cannot do without for smooth and easy transfer of information. Telegram allows you to have up to 100,000 members in a group whereas for WhatsApp that number is just 256. In this Telegram supergroups, you have a unified message history, pinnable messages, and replies, mentions, and hashtags.

Large groups come with their challenges; users are difficult to control, keeping track of important messages becomes a herculean task. But if you want to pass a message to a large group of people at the same time, then Telegram is your thing.

Resources

https://telegram.org/
https://www.whatsapp.com/

Series Backlinks

This is the first part of this series, where I would be detailing the features of Telegram and how it compares with WhatsApp.