What with WhatsApp’s changes to their T&Cs does anyone use Telegram & if yes is it any good & are there any drawbacks? Any feedback is welcomed.
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I prefer, and hope, the WhatsApp changes, if they convince anyone to move platform, that if any, they opt for Signal.
Signal is great. Plenty of people like Telegram too, but personally I don’t trust them.
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The actual functionality of Telegram looks great, and works reliably and consistently across devices and browsers, but I only knew one person who used it and they deleted their account so I did too
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Most of my friends and colleagues still use WhatsApp and they are the kind of people who don’t care about terms and conditions being changed 
so I am stuck with WhatsApp.
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Same thing here. I’m in a WhatsApp group with a couple hundred people. There’s no way api can get them all to move to something else.
The drawback is that it’s not widespread enough.
I seriously doubt either this or Signal will gain traction. The average user isn’t actually bothered about T&C’s on apps in the 1st place.
If they were they wouldn’t be on Facebook, Insta, Google etc etc
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I’m not so sure anymore. A surprising number of my peers have been asking me about signal over the past few days and are clearly looking to move away from WhatsApp. Some of these are people who were blissfully unaware that Facebook owned WhatsApp, and at one point, moved to WhatsApp to get away from Facebook. 
I think people are starting to become aware that not only Facebook is running WhatsApp, but that they’re losing control over their data again, and that’s a good thing.
My concern is people folk are divided it would seem, between Signal and Telegram. If this is about retaining control of your data and moving to a privacy first solution that can be trusted, Telegram is not the right choice, yet folk are more vocal in recommending them.
If there is a mass migration on the way, I think it will be to telegram, but I hope it’s to Signal.
If iMessage was on Android however, then I suspect the choice to move would be both obvious and easier. A trusted name, from a trusted brand that folks already know, and is already on every iPhone.
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Had a few people who i didnt think would be bothered move over to signal recently.
Means ive been able to move a few group chats over, not great but its a start 
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I can live with that. If just a few people are willing to move then great. If they stick with it, it’ll ripple. The mass migration away from MSN didn’t happen overnight either.
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With people now using either WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram we need a new app to combine them all into one.
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I don’t think WhatsApp numbers are going to be materially affected because ultimately unless everyone moves no one will move.
I tried out Signal over the weekend and it’s actually quite nice. The privacy and security aspects are solid but the convenience factor just isn’t there. That security comes at the cost of all your messages being stored on device. When we’re talking about years of data this just isn’t viable for a majority of people.
Telegram’s cloud backup is probably its single best feature. It works everywhere with great apps on many platforms. Apple has only just got iMessage on the Mac up to feature parity with iOS. There’s no way I see them supporting other platofrms as first class citizens.
I’ve had one person ask me about Signal in the last week but everyon else is blissfully unaware. When the new T&Cs screen pops up on their phone I’d go long on them just clicking accept and moving on with life.
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Honestly, I personally think the only thing that can affect the numbers within WhatsApp is if Apple release iMessage on Android.
They’re renowned for their privacy, security and protection of consumers, it’s already on every iOS device, and so it’ll be easier to get people to switch over to iMessage. Whether it’s better (or worse) is a different story.
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I’ve had this conversation with @N26throwaway elsewhere.
It would probably help in the US. I’m doubtful it would make a difference here and there’s zero chance anyone would care in India / China / Japan / Korea…
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Is a revival of Trillian on the cards?
Although I only used it as it was the only decent way to use MSN on Mac back in the day. It was nice to have MSN, AIM for American buddies, and Facebook messenger integrated in a single app whilst folk from AIM and MSN gradually moved over and converged on Facebook after a brief but short lived fling with Skype. Back when Facebook wasn’t the epitome of evil.
Just had a nostalgia moment. I remember it being released, and now I feel old. 
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I’m guessing this is technically impossible given the shit to proprietary standards and desire for stronger security?
I still remember my ICQ number.
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I second this, Telegram has its perks but signal fully encrypts any and all metadata, whereas Telegram doesn’t, it also copies your address book to their servers.
Also, the fact that by default Telegram backs up your chats to the servers means they have full access to your messages, unless you explicitly use the secret chat feature, with Signal its end to end from the get go.
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I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that for most people this is a feature and not a bug.
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