SIGNAL vs TELEGRAM | THE BEST WHATSAPP REPLACEMENT [2021]

Introduction

WhatsApp has recently been in some privacy-related controversies, and thus people are looking for the best replacement for WhatsApp. Currently, the two closest replacements are Telegram and Signal. So this article is about Signal vs Telegram, which is the best replacement for WhatsApp in 2021.

But before jumping to the comparison, let’s discuss the WhatsApp Privacy Concerns first.

If you are still not aware of the privacy policy Whatsapp has decided after February 8th, 2021, then it’s high time to know about it. Whatsapp has been an application that became popular lately as time passed by with its additional features like stickers and gifs.

With time, we have got so many additional perks as of posting statuses and talking to people with emojis. We have started to
rely more on WhatsApp than on other social media applications.

But recently, this story is about change with the former’s introduction to some new policies. They might not seem as harmful as such and apparently might seem essential and a necessity but looking deep they are much more problematic than we can ever imagine.

What Is WhatsApp Privacy Policy?

Brief Summary

If you are unaware of the privacy policy or just have skipped it, then I will brief you about it.
The new WhatsApp Privacy policy gives the conditions like, it will collect the personal data and keep it in its cloud and can share with its parent app, Facebook.

According to them, they would ‘collect or receive some operation to operate, improve, understand, customize and support our market services.’

Those, who wouldn’t agree to this will not be allowed to keep their WhatsApp account nor will be allowed to create a new one.

WhatsApp Privacy Policy in Detail

According to the new policy launched by WhatsApp, it has been clearly stated that they must “collect or receive some operation to operate, improve, understand, customize, and support our market services.”

Let us break the policy into categories and look at it more closely.

ACCOUNT:

We can add other information to it as usual as our phone number and display picture. We won’t be allowed to create any WhatsApp profile without giving out this information. The phone number is a must with an about status. Other things can be given when you progress in the following app after installation.

MESSAGES:

The messages that we do to our friends are stored in the WhatsApp servers which they claim to delete after the messages have reached. There might be a chance that these messages might never be deleted. The media that you share with your friends for example- the pictures that you clicked with your friends during a day out are probably stored in the WhatsApp servers “temporarily”.

CONTACTS:

The contacts with whom you interact in your day to day lives are synced with the WhatsApp servers and kept details about. The same goes for WhatsApp groups that you create with your friends and with whom you chat a lot. This information is completely added to your account information by the WhatsApp servers.

TRANSACTION:

Whatsapp has added a new feature where you can send money to each other. This particular app can retrieve your bank account and other transaction-oriented details that you share with the app while sending money.

OTHER INFORMATION:

While we think that our location and device information is not known, this actually is a myth. Whatsapp keeps track of all the information that it might come across which includes, device name, ios name or android name and also our precise location. It will be providing us cookies that will retrieve our information.

THIRD-PARTY INFORMATION:

Whatsapp is able to take in your information from your mutual friends whose contact has been synced by your mutual ones. Whatsapp asks for these information from people who are in your contacts to

“have lawful rights to collect, use, and share your information before providing any information to us.”

This basically is how your information is transferred to the WhatsApp servers with just a blink of an eye.

Why Should WhatsApp be Replaced?

If we think about it closely, WhatsApp is collecting the Profile pictures, the phone number, the status we share and worse our transaction details through WhatsApp Payment.

By personal data they mean to access our IP address, the model of our phone, the type of internet services we are using. Although, the chats in WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted, but when the chats are backed up, they aren’t encrypted at all.
Coming to the question, why that would bother us?

First of all, we chose WhatsApp to have more personal conversations. Phone numbers are something we don’t usually share with everyone at random.

Secondly, no matter how open minded one can be, nobody can wrap their mind around the fact that their chats can be read by someone.

They will be using our information to serve us more customized services like showing us advertisements of whatever we are searching on internet, but come on, every one has their personal stuff to deal with. Adverts popping up about random things might not be comfortable.

It is risky for the business groups also, as information can leak easily. Due to COVID-19, most firms are working from home. A lot of important things are discussed and kept with in the groups itself.

Most importantly, we won’t like our pictures being accessed by others. Anything can happen in the world of Photoshops, to add that our numbers would also be accessed. We might be comfortable to share some objectives, images, videos with a known circle, but the same thing with a large crowd, no, right?

So after reading, this far, if you are having thoughts on How to Delete your WhatsApp Account, then here’s our guide on that.

How to Delete your WhatsApp Account (Ultimate Guide 2021)

WhatsApp Alternatives

Therefore, it’s high time we change the way we messaged before. Deleting WhatsApp from our phones seem to be a better option. For people finding the replacement for WhatsApp, we have two best applications for you

• SIGNAL
• TELEGRAM

Deleting WhatsApp from our devices will not completely remove our information from their servers but it will delete maximum information of us from the WhatsApp servers.

WHAT IS TELEGRAM?

Telegram is a freeware, cross-platform, cloud-based instant messaging, video calling VoIP service. In order to decrease the data load, the servers of the telegram are distributed worldwide. Telegram is currently rising in its popularity for a number of reasons.

PROS

• Presence of chat folders
• Add nearby people and group
• Edit sent messages
• Sent silent message
• Schedule messages
• Delete sender’s message
• Self-destruct media in normal chats
• Edit videos
• Add animated stickers to images and videos
• Set reminders
• Quick gif and youtube search
• Slow mode
• We can copy a part of the text from a message
• Polls and quiz mode
• Create timestamp for videos
• One can send uncompressed files without changing its extension.
• We can stop adding ourselves to random groups
• View search result
• Turn off notifications for individual chats
• Change phone numbers
• One can have multiple telegram accounts
• We can have custom themes for our telegram accounts
• Enable auto night mode
• We are able to lock our chats
• Hashtags can be added to organize our chats
• We can share live location with our friends.
• Plenty of videos that you do not need to get from Netflix.

CONS

• Only for group chats, there is no such security
• Screen security is available for only secret chats
• In-built cloud backup is available for all chats.

WHAT IS SIGNAL?

Signal is a non-profit organization that began its services in 2014. It is an internet-based app that allows us to send one to one messages. Here we can send voice notes as well as voice notes, images, and videos. This application is making its mark because it is much more secure than WhatsApp. Here are some of the features of this app.

PROS

• Secure messaging
• End to end encryption for video calls and voice calls
• The users can create groups without even broadcasting to various contacts at once.
• Up to 150 members can be added to the group chat
• A note to self-feature is added in signal
• Much lesser data is collected by signal app when compared to WhatsApp.
• It has the sealed sender feature in it
• Open whisper system available
• Signal can be changed into default SMS/MMS application
• Additional security is provided by the time out feature
• Has read receipts and typing indicators
• Signal allows users to blue their profile pictures that ensure a higher security

CONS

• No names and passwords are there for login credentials
• Mandatory connection to the phone number

Signal vs Telegram vs WhatsApp | Ultimate Comparison

WHATSAPP	TELEGRAM	SIGNAL
Not a complete open source. Backups not encrypted	Not open source. Servers have access to keys.	Open source truly end to end encrypted
Third party cloud backup	Inbuilt cloud back up. Secret chats not backed up	Local backups can be enabled off by default
Screen security unavailable	Screen security only available for secret chats	Screen security completely available
No group chat security available	No group chat security available	Complete group chat security available

CONCLUSION:

In this current situation, WhatsApp has become a threat to our privacy. We must switch to other applications and influence others to do so as well. So from this signals vs telegram comparison, probably we have helped you choose your ideal WhatsApp replacement.