Comment by JohnFen

> I don't get why people who are so paranoid about someone associating their Telegram handle with their phone number simply don't go and grab a burner SIM at Tesco.

I could not hate the phone number requirement more, and it's one of the main reasons why I don't use these applications.

With one exception: I have an overseas friend who only communicates through WhatsApp. For him, I did go out and get a burner phone for this purpose. But the friction level of doing that is unnecessarily high and I doubt I'd do it for anyone else.