What are the differences between Telegram and WhatsApp? Privacy, dissemination, users...
The founder of Telegram was arrested by French authorities for offenses related to the messenger app similar to WhatsApp. Here’s how the two apps differ.
Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, has been arrested by French authorities for offenses related to his popular messaging app. According to reporting from TF1 TV, officials from the national antifraud office detained him on a multitude of offences related to his social media platform not moderating content such as terrorism, drugs, fraud, money laundering, moving stolen goods and child abuse, thus making him an accomplice to those crimes.
“Over the years, it has become THE number one platform for organized crime,” said an investigator.
So how has Telegram become the “go-to” app for criminals over others like WhatsApp?
What are the differences between Telegram and WhatsApp? Privacy, dissemination, users...
Telegram was launched in August, 2013, by Durov and his brother first on iOS and then an Android version of the app later that year. It was designed to be a privacy-focused, ad-free messaging app. Less than a year later it had 35 million active monthly users and now has a user base approaching 1 billion.
It is most popular in Russia, Ukraine and the republics of the former Soviet Union. It only has around 11 million users in the United States in 2022.
On the other hand about a quarter of the US population was using WhatsApp at the same time. It crossed the 100 million user milestone in the US last month and has over 2 billion active users worldwide. The messenger app now owned by Meta was created by Brian Acton and Jan Koum, former employees of Yahoo! in February 2009.
Koum explained that the impetus for the service resulted from him missing too many phone calls while at the gym. Originally it was designed to let people know whether or not they were available through a “Status” feature. It was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion.
Both platforms offer users privacy, but WhatsApp has default end-to-end encryption whereas with Telegram users have to toggle a switch. However, Telegram features Secret Chats, which provides end-to-end encryption, and allows users to set messages to self-destruct after a specific time providing enhanced privacy.
WhatsApp allows users to create groups of up to 1024 member currently. But that pales to the 200,000 members of a group on Telegram.