Currently, WhatsApp is the largest messaging service in the world with over 2 billion monthly active users. Following that, Telegram accounts for 400 million and Signal stands at a ballpark of 10-20 million monthly active users. Looking at the raw numbers, it’s clear that WhatsApp is wildly popular and almost ubiquitous while Telegram is catching up and Signal seems to have just joined the million downloads race. Having said that, numbers don’t tell you everything and that’s why we bring you a detailed comparison between WhatsApp vs Telegram vs Signal.
We will be comparing these three instant messengers on a number of fronts: security, features, and ownership. We will discuss all the things you get and lose by choosing one of these messengers over the others, so you can make a well educated choice about which app you want to use.
- Security
- Features
- Ownership
1. Security
Before anything, I would like to begin with security first as it’s the most debatable and contentious topic among the three messaging services. So let’s start off with WhatsApp’s security model first in this battle against Telegram and Signal.
One thing that WhatsApp definitely has going for it is its end-to-end encryption. Plus, E2E on WhatsApp is available on every single mode of communication that the app enables. So all your messages, video calls, voice calls, photos, and anything else you share is end-to-end encrypted on WhatsApp.
But that’s on the back-end. What about security features on the user-facing side of WhatsApp. Well, WhatsApp offers a built-in app lock feature on both the Android and iOS apps, so you can lock your WhatsApp chats with biometrics. Moreover, you get support for two factor authentication (2FA) on the app, which is great for security as well.
As far as security is concerned, Telegram does offer some protections to its users. However, there are multiple pain points in the way Telegram encrypts your messages and other information. For one, while Telegram supports E2E encryption, it’s not enabled by default. The only way to use E2E encryption on Telegram is to use its secret chats feature.
Clearly, Telegram’s security isn’t nearly as robust as WhatsApp’s or Signal Messenger’s.
Signal is by far the best when it comes to security, be it on the back-end or on the user-facing side of the service.
In addition, you have some incredible privacy features on Signal that is going to make your messaging experience even more private and secure. For instance, you can lock Signal with a passcode or biometrics. Then there is 2FA and an option to block screenshots within the app and the recent screen. And recently Signal added a new feature to blur faces automatically before sending images. That’s cool, right?
Moving on, let’s take a look at the features offered by these three apps and see which one offers the most to its users.
For the most part, WhatsApp offers almost every feature you might need. You get support for group chats with up to 256 members. You can also broadcast messages to multiple contacts at the same time.
There’s also support for voice and video calls, both for individual users and groups. However, for group video calls, you are restricted to 8 users at any time.
Telegram
While WhatsApp offers most of the features you’d need, Telegram is basically overloaded with features. The app offers so many features that it’s incredible. Similar to WhatsApp, you get the basics such as chats, group chats and channels. However, unlike WhatsApp’s 256 member limit, Telegram brings support for groups with up to 200,000 members!
Up until a while ago, Telegram didn’t offer video calls. However, the app now supports both voice and video calls on Android and iOS devices, which is great because video call support was a big omission from the app.
While Signal beats Telegram and WhatsApp handily when it comes to security, it falls short on the features it offers. Still, I don’t think there’s any big missing feature that might deter you from using the app.
Apart from that, Signal allows you to relay voice calls to its servers so your identity remains concealed from your contacts. The feature is somewhat similar to what a VPN does. Signal also offers a built-in option to hide your IP address. Further, you can enable incognito keyboard while typing on Signal, apply dark mode, delete old messages in one stroke, and of course, blur faces and private information from images using its powerful photo editor.
While that was all about security and features, now we need to discuss the ownership of all three platforms: WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal. Ownership is important because it allows us to understand how companies are looking to monetize user data and lets you take an informed decision.
WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, and while for quite some time the company had managed to keep WhatsApp at least a little bit less intrusive into your personal life as compared to its eponymous social media platform, that’s changing now.
That’s not all, throughout WhatsApp’s lifetime under Facebook, there have been multiple allegations around the company breaking encryption and creating backdoors for government agencies.
Coming to Telegram, it was launched in 2013 by Nikolai Durov and his younger brother, Pavel Durov. Both are from Russia and are currently on a self-imposed exile. Pavel Durov was dismissed as CEO of a Russian social-media site after he refused to hand over data of Ukrainian protesters to Russia’s security agencies.
Apart from that, on many occasions, Pavel Durov has taken a principled position against censorship and government interference. Looking at the history that geared the development of Telegram, I would say, it does inspire trust. However, the closed-source encryption protocol and optional E2E support leave the room for more transparency and improvement.
Finally, Signal is owned by the nonprofit Signal Foundation which is run by cryptographer Moxie Marlinspike and Brian Acton. Moxie Marlinspike used to run Open Whisper Systems — the brainchild behind the Signal protocol. After he met Brian Acton in 2018, they formed a new alliance called Signal Foundation. It now wholly funds the development of Signal messenger. It’s noteworthy that Brian Acton was the co-founder of WhatsApp. However, he left the company 3 years after Facebook acquired it. Moxie Marlinspike / Image: TechCrunch
After that entire discussion, it’s clear and obvious that Signal is highly secure and private. If privacy is top-most on your priorities, Signal is the way to go for you. WhatsApp is great as far as the E2E encryption is concerned. However, with the new privacy policy I am finding it extremely difficult to suggest WhatsApp to anyone anymore.
On the other hand, Telegram messenger may not be the best in terms of security. However, it offers a boatload of features that are enough to make any group admin drool. Plus you do get end-to-end encryption on Telegram, albeit restricted to secret chats.
