Comment by windexh8er
2 years ago
Definitely not a copy of Telegram. I'm not actually sure what the draw is with Telegram but given it's origins I'll choose Signal over Telegram.
If you read the thread the linkage between a phone number and a Signal account cuts down on fake accounts significantly - which has nothing to do with "social media" but it does have a lot to do with SPAM as you've incorrectly stated. I understand why it's not ideal, but there are tradeoffs in both directions. It's unlikely that usernames are going to expose users more than they currently are if they're already using Signal. And it's also unlikely that this new feature changes much, but I welcome the ability to prevent users from associating my known number to my Signal account. In this way the security model has improved considerably.
Telegram has channels and groups that work in a weird but very useful way. That's mostly the draw for me, not really the private messaging. Though the UX is just amazing, even for private messages. Everything is just super neat and where you expect it to be. I'd still probably not use it if it wasn't for how channels work
Telegram's privacy is questionable but its UI is absolutely outstanding.
I know right? Telegram is one of my favourite iPhone apps, hands down, purely on the basis of the interface. It’s also incredibly performant, which means a lot considering I use a 6S model from 2015. In comparison, the last discord update became literally unusable, for performance reasons (it was so bad, i ended up deleting it).
Does Telegram still have a feature where you can see who nearby you is using Telegram? That to me is a reason alone to not install it.
This feature requires you to press the button that says “make myself visible” — and then it shares location. Like most apps, you can deny the location access at a system level and never worry about it.
It has been a long time since I've used Telegram but why else would I have had that enabled?
The interesting thing is that it does share your location when you open that screen even before you click that button. I don’t know why they did it, but it is definitely a shady thing.