5 January 2021

Signal VS Telegram: Privacy Policies, Features & Ratings

Demand for messaging platforms Signal and Telegram spike as users scurry to find an alternative to WhatsApp. So between the two, which should you use?

Faye Chong

Content Marketing Lead

Reading time: 3 minutes

WhatsApp users are flocking to find alternative messaging platforms after WhatsApp announced some privacy changes that will take effect in February 2021.

Telegram issued an update on 13 Jan that they have 500 million new active users in the last 72 hours.

Hailed as one of the best WhatsApp alternatives, Signal and Telegram have seen a spike in demand after the announcement.

In fact, Telegram has seen 25 million new users within 72 hours!

But among the two, which platform should you use? Let’s review some of their features.

Privacy policy

Data privacy has always been a huge concern when it comes to the usage of software and apps.

Unfortunately, that is the exact reason why WhatsApp is under fire. It was alleged that the recent privacy updates from WhatsApp will allow messages from Whatsapp Business to be shared with Facebook.

WhatsApp will share user data such as your phone number, transaction data, mobile device information, and your IP address with Facebook and its other services.

However, Whatsapp has since issued a public clarification stating that while it will be accessible to Facebook, private and group messages are NOT on the list.

We want to address some rumors and be 100% clear we continue to protect your private messages with end-to-end encryption. pic.twitter.com/6qDnzQ98MP
— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) January 12, 2021

Fortunately, we still have options. Signal and Telegram are both well-known messaging apps for their security. Let’s take a look at their privacy rules.

Signal

Signal is frequently recommended as a WhatsApp alternative. Similar to Telegram, it is known for its chat encryption and security. It encrypts all chats, calls, and even files so you don’t have to worry about anyone spying on you. 👀

It’s privacy policy states that it only keeps your phone number used during registration. Subsequently, they know nothing about what you do with your account.

That’s because nobody, including Signal, has access to the messages exchanged between users on the app or over the server. Since they don’t collect other data from you, and everything is encrypted, this makes for a rather secure messaging app.

For the longest time, Telegram has been WhatsApp’s biggest competitor. It boasts several unique features like Telegram bots that make it such a popular messaging app.

But another reason why it climbed to the top was that it prioritizes its users’ privacy.

Its privacy policy states that the platform still does collect some data such as your phone number, contact list, username, and profile picture. But the platform assures users that they don’t retrieve your personal information for ads or commercial purposes.

Telegram stores all messages, media, and files in a Telegram Passport. Although the server does handle this end-to-end encrypted data, they don’t have the special ‘keys’ to decipher the contents of this passport, which are random sequences of symbols.

Long story short, your messages are safe and sound as Telegram doesn’t have access to the data.

Comparing Signal’s and Telegram’s privacy policies

Features

Other than their attractive privacy policies, here are other features that make Signal and Telegram worth switching to.

Ratings

Conclusion

Signal and Telegram both prioritize privacy, which is evident from the little data they collect from you. This helps put you and your customers’ minds at ease when exchanging messages.

Also, both apps have attractive features that make them a great messaging platform.

But as we always say, it depends.

Neither app is perfect, so you’d have to give up some features if you use either or. It’s up to you to pick a stance and choose your fighter.