Search on Telegram is more powerful than in other messaging apps because it allows users to find public channels and bots. Unfortunately, this feature has been abused by people who violated our Terms of Service to sell illegal goods.
To further deter criminals from abusing Telegram Search, we have updated our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, ensuring they are consistent across the world. We’ve made it clear that the IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate our rules can be disclosed to relevant authorities in response to valid legal requests.
So what’s the replacement?
Wire. Fully encrypted, easily anonymous because no phone number needed
For private messaging? Signal was always better. The way I use Telegram, and the way Telegram should be used, is like another public social media. I use it for following channels that give news about things I’m interested in.
I love the premise of Signal, but there are too many red flags. Some of my issues are:
Why not Signal?
All completely irrelevant to most people. Nobody they know is on those platforms.
There are only two alternatives to the Big Tech messengers that are anywhere near critical mass: Signal and the shady one we’re talking about here.
Though I would love Matrix to go mainstream.
This is sadly the exact reason it will stay like this. People can’t reach me because i don’t use WhatsApp? Well bad luck. Use a better app or just don’t. I can’t reach them because they only use WA? What a bummer but so be it.
As long as people install WhatsCrapp because some distant aunt still uses it for the xmas-greetings, it will continue to be #1.
Nobody is on Signal either.
I feel like there needs to be an incentive in mind for those apps to bring in ppl. People care about privacy but won’t even delete FB, let alone use a different messaging app
Ironically though Matrix has a Problem with metadata leaking out while signal doesn’t
For the illegal goods? Sir this is privacy not piracy.
You really gonna come in here with a “want privacy? Must be because you’re a criminal.”? Get the fuck out.
This was obvious a joke, but whatever.
The illegal goods on telegram aren’t piracy related.
Sir, this is for privacy not for CSAM
No, doesn’t have the same ring to it
Sure, it was just for the laughs.
Element 2.0 or Signal is only worth ones, I think.
But to be honest - it’s only IP and phone number. If you have concerns about possibility of such request about your persona, you always can buy Telegram’s anonymous phone number / fake telephone number / use VPN to login.
I prefer wire.
Unlike matrix, wire encrypts everything. Its not possible to send unencrypted messages on Wire.
Unlike Signal, you don’t need a phone or a phone number to use Wire. Create an account with an anonymous email address directly on either the desktop app or the mobile app.
Element I’m not that sure, it’s so bloated that I’m surprised it works on mobile phones. Regarding matrix sure
They said element 2.0, which I’d assume means Element X using matrix 2.0. From my testing in the last few weeks, element X has been the fastest messaging app I’ve ever used. Probably still some bugs but does not feel bloated anymore at all.
Who do you talk to on it?
His friends, maybe? lol
Just clarifying for the ones who don’t know: Element is a Matrix client.
So far, irc, jabber/ xmpp and matrix and plain old email with gpg :-)
Matrix?
Search on Matrix is slow though, at least through the official app. It is slightly fast on Cinny, however.
I noticed performance of matrix depends strongly on the server. Matrix.org is dead slow, I started using tchncs.de and even old ( somehow legacy ) element android is blazing fast
Basically because of how it works,it’s based on math graph.
regarding its UX, nothing close exists; when it comes to converting normies, so you have someone to actually talk to, then there are no alternatives. that’s a pretty shitty state of affairs for something that shoulda been solved a long time ago.
lesson learned, I guess, don’t put all your eggs in one basket and have multiple fallback solutions. I’ve begrudingly moved to Signal and I’m cursing it out at least once per day, can’t believe the navel-gazing, self-righteous cluelessness behind it; but that’s the best there is at the moment. it’s beyond shitty that we’re having trouble achieving what we had in like 2012 by way of XMPP and friends, let alone surpassing it.
XMPP is still around although there’s a constant campaign trying to claim it’s gone.
because things moved forward in the last decade or so and it’s not viable. the same way matrix and element and those ridiculous things aren’t viable and never will be. can you use it today? absolutely. can you convert normies to it and make it an actual widely used comms platform? no. fucking. way.
this is coming from a guy running their own prosody instance and utilizing rocketchat on two separate client instances. yeah, I know how to set it up and deploy it; but the amount of absolutely credible complaints I get from normies forced to use it staggering.
It’s shocking how many people just outright ignore UX.
What don’t you like about Signal?
Requires both a phone and a phone number
to me it looks and feels like shit, compared to Durov’s spyware it’s like a PoC from 2015 looking for funding. fine demo you got there, now bring us the real thing.
but, to practical things, I lose/sell/buy/switch devices frequently. with telegram, I can lose all my devices, log on from a fresh one and all my shit is there - a decade+ of convos with 100s of people with valuable info. no juggling around with the crappy electron desktop app that doesn’t give me access to convos or the inane procedure to replace a lost device and restore chat history… the other day, I successfully retrieved a piece of info from a convo from a decade prior.
I realize there are people out there that need that sort of security, but I don’t. I just want Telegram with an OTR plugin (OMEMO nowadays) that prevents any nascent mass surveilance and LLM ingestion and I’m golden. but that shit’s explicitly against Telegram’s ToS; the only logical conclusion is they’re adamant about leaving all your shit unencrypted in the cloud for some specific reason.
I can’t think of any such reason that’s not malevolent.
I see it a lot when ppl complain about signal, but just can’t understand why you would save 10+ years in old msgs. Almost all my signal conversations even GRP chats are set to 1 week auto delete. If something important Is said that I need to save, I copy/paste it into my note app where I can organize it. Its sounds so impractical to dig through 10+ years of data everytime you need something. Plus it would be awful to know there is a log of all the dumb things I said 10 years ago lol.
Completely agree! The ephemerality of Signal is a feature, not a bug.
I didn’t always see it this way, but then a thought occurred to me. None of the conversations we have in person are recorded. Those communications are just as meaningful if not more so than text conversations, and yet somehow we get by just fine without them being stored indefinitely on some personal device, let alone in someone else’s datacenter.
This is a case of technology controlling us when we should be controlling it.
How about something e2ee? (Even Whatsapp is more privat than telegram)