Comment by hiprob

Currently, the Russian government is trying to squeeze people out of Telegram and move them over to MAX: https://caspianpost.com/regions/russia-tightens-telegram-res... WhatsApp also operates in Russia, despite Instagram and Facebook being banned. So I wouldn't count on its E2EE either. Signal still requires a phone number and proprietary Google blobs on mobile. Many third-party Telegram clients exist - Signal allows none.