Telegram: A secure clone of WhatsApp

Telegram is another messaging app with other popular apps in market like WhatsApp. In a fast quick look you will find no difference with well known WhatsApp.

SIMILARITY:

• Telegram works very similarly to WhatsApp. After starting the app, you must first verify your mobile number. You will then receive a code via SMS. This is either automatically confirmed or you must enter it by hand. 
• You can write to people, who are in your phone contacts and have Telegram. Your contacts, who have Telegram, are shown at the top of your Contacts. They also have pictures similar concept like WhatsApp.
• Telegram, by design, is very much reminiscent of WhatsApp. Telegram has a simple neat & clean user interface. Profile information of your chat partner can be accessed with a quick tap on the small profile picture at the top right. You will also find their last-seen status, phone number, and you can set a custom notification ringtone for each contact. Previously exchanged media such as videos, photos and location data can be found under "Shared Media", very oriented towards WhatsApp.

How is Telegram different from the popular messaging app, Whatsapp? Why Switch to Telegram?

 

FREE: On top of that, Telegram is free and will stay free without ads or subscription fees, forever. Telegram is a non-profit project. The team says they do not intend to sell ads, bring revenue or accept outside investment.

SECRET CHAT: What makes Telegram so special is "Start Secret Chat" which is a new chat window with end-to-end encryption. No data is stored on the Telegram servers. When a secret chat is created, the participating devices exchange encryption keys using two layers of secure encryption based on 256-bit symmetric AES encryption, RSA 2048 encryption and Diffie–Hellman secure key exchange. After the secure end-to-end connection has been established, the app generates a picture that visualizes the encryption key for your chat. Telegram is claiming any Secret Chat will be 200% secure, which certainly sounds confident.

SELF-DESTRUCT FEATURE: However, the most interesting thing about these new settings is the self-destruct timer. If you choose to enables this, you can specify how much time will elapse between sending a message from your device to the receiver before it self-destructs. This means not only are the messages never cached but they are also irrevocably destroyed after a set period of time. The selectable duration is between one week and two seconds configured in various set stages. In the test the destruction of the messages worked immediately, leaving traces nowhere on either device.

FAST: Telegram servers are distributed all over the world which enhances the speed and security of your messages. Telegram ran with very stable and reliable performance and the messages were delivered without delay due to its decentralized cloud based mechanism. The messenger stood up to its claim to be one of the fastest messenger apps available. Even with the self-destruction mode enabled all chats worked flawlessly.

GROUP CHAT & SHARING: With this app's group chat you can carry on a conversation with up to 100 people, which is double of WhatsApp. Also, by using the paper clip icon you can send your pictures and videos from your gallery with a size of up to one gigabyte and also documents (doc, zip, mp3, etc). You can share your real time geographical location with your friends too.

CUSTOMIZATION: In the settings you can edit your profile, set the text size and activate animations. Background, Notifications and sound options can also be customized here.

CROSS PLATFORM COMPATIBILITY: The final cherry on top is that Telegram can be used on multiple devices, something WhatsApp still can't do. It has cloud based decentralized messaging system. That means all your messages and contents are backed up in Telegram’s server. Due to this they have also created the desktop client for Windows and Linux. It works same as the mobile application. You need no emulator to install on your pc unlike WhatsApp. It works with no lagging no crash on Windows XP, 7 and 8. The app works in Windows 8.1 too.

Desktop version of Telegram

UNLIMITED CLOUD STORAGE: Telegram offers free unlimited cloud storage for all your Telegram messages and media that you can securely access from multiple devices. In result, you will never loose your data again.

SUPPORT: For real-time support, please go to settings in Telegram and select “Ask a Question” to send a message directly to teams support staff (phone number 333). You can also email at support@telegram.org.

DISADVANTAGE

No voice chat: Voice chat is absent in Telegram. No facility for audio chatting is disappointing the Telegram users. While this feature make WhatsApp popular among messengers. But Telegram team assure they will add the features in coming versions.

No migration: Each new phone number is a new Telegram account. So if you change your phone number, you won't be able to access your messages until you re-login. Where WhatsApp allow you to migrate your cell-phone number along with all your account information.