The Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp has been hit by a global backlash over privacy. Many users are migrating to Signal or Telegram.
Many users are Switching to Signal or Telegram. Should you join them?
WhatsApp has already started sending notifications to users asking them to accept the new privacy policy. The new terms, which was supposed to roll out in February, will come into effect on May 15. WhatsApp extended the date to give users more time to understand and accept the new privacy policy and reiterated that all the personal chats will remain end-to-end encrypted and no one will be able to access them.
WhatsApp vs Signal vs Telegram: Features
If You Look At Their Features, There's No Major Differences Between them!
Lets See their Features :
WhatsApp has everything you would need on a social messaging service including the new in-app payments feature. Group chats work with up to 256 members. You can broadcast messages to multiple contacts, support voice and video calls, both for individuals and groups.
- Group video calls (8 users at any time)
- WhatsApp Status feature (also called WhatsApp stories)
- WhatsApp allows you to share all sorts of files and documents (upto 100MB)
- Photos, videos and audio files can be shared upto 16 MB
- You can share live location with your contacts
- Backup and restore messages and data via cloud services like Google Drive and iCloud
- WhatsApp uses end to end encryption (E2E) for communication: messages, video calls, voice calls, photos and anything
- WhatsApp uses E2E protocol developed by Open Whisper Systems, same as Signal
Telegram
Telegram offers support to groups with up to 200,000 members. Known for its large and massive groups, Telegram offers multiple group-specific features such as bots, polls, quizzes and hashtags, extensive for large group experiences.
- Self-destructing messages, where the message will get deleted after a point of time
- The size limit for sharing files on Telegram is 1.5 GB
- Supports voice and video call on Android and iOS devices
- Telegram supports E2E only secret chats feature
- The company confirmed it shares 0 bytes of data with third-parties or any governments till date
Signal
Coming to the latest member, Signal offers secure messaging, voice, and video calls with end-to-end encryption. You can create groups, but can’t broadcast messages to multiple contacts at once. Signal also has added support for group calling.
- Supports self-destructing messages
- Note to Self to share your own thoughts and ideas without creating single member groups
- Signal allows relay voice calls to its servers, identity is not shared, same as using a VPN
- Signal uses back-end user-facing encryption service
- It uses the open-source Signal Protocol to implement end-to-end encryption
- Signal also encrypts your metadata offering multiple levels of security
WhatsApp vs Signal vs Telegram: Privacy & Security
End-To-End Encryption
Talking About End-To-End Encryption WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal, all three are popular for their robust end-to-end-encryption. But what makes the three different is the way they implement this End To End encryption for the users (by default).
WhatsApp: WhatsApp communication's and data remain End-To-End encryption during transit by default. WhatsApp basically uses the Signal encryption protocol.
Telegram: Telegram offers optional End-To-End encryption but not active by default. The End-To-End Encryption Is only present in the telegram's secret chat feature. The app uses MTProto encryption protocol based on 256-bit symmetric AES encryption, 2048-bit RSA encryption, and Diffie–Hellman key exchange.
Signal: Signal protocol (or the TextSecure Protocol) uses AES-256, Curve25519, and HMAC-SHA256 as primitives and combines Double Ratchet Algorithm, prekeys, and an Extended Triple Diffie–Hellman (X3DH) handshake. Other apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and Google allows use this encryption protocol to offer e2e encryption to their customers (either optional or default). On Signal app, End-To-End encryption for all communications is available by default.
WhatsApp: WhatsApp app applies “store and forward” mechanism, deleting the message as soon as it is delivered. If the message undelivered, the message remains for 30 days on WhatsApp's servers as the app attempts to deliver it. The data is deleted after 30 days.
Telegram: Data retained on Telegram’s own servers in “heavily encrypted” form for an undefined time.
Signal: No explicit data retention on its servers besides technical information necessary to operate the services. Besides, it may temporarily store End-To-End encrypted messages on its servers if undelivered.
WhatsApp vs Signal vs Telegram: Advertising Policy
WhatsApp: WhatsApp uses information that they have to communicate with us about their Services and they let us know about their terms, policies, and other important updates. They may provide you marketing for their Services and those of the Facebook Companies.
Telegram: No data use for ad targeting. But Telegram plans to launch its own ad platform in future.
Signal: The Signal App is fully Ad-Free and it doesn't have any advertising policy.
WhatsApp vs Signal vs Telegram: Data Collection
Talking About Data Collection Although, iOS users would now know it better as the latest iOS alerts users about the kind of data apps access. However, here’s a quick breakdown of data collection by WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal.
WhatsApp: After the updates, WhatsApp starting February 8, 2021, WhatsApp will have access to users’ detailed personal information such as contacts, status, location, time logs, usage stats, device identifiers, and other sensitive data.
Telegram: The Telegram App Collects user ID, contact information, and users’ contacts (numbers).
Signal: The Signal App Collects and stores users’ own number, also accesses users’ contacts to detect Signal users (by matching the hashed versions).
Conclusion :
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According To Me, labeling any of these apps as the “best” depends on users’ Personal Choice and preferences .
However, comparing the security of WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal reveals that WhatsApp does not remain secure anymore. Perhaps, that’s why people have started leaving the platform.
So we leave it up to our readers to decide which app suits them best :)
That's All About The Comparison Guys!
Hope You Liked It :)
