WhatsApp is the largest messaging service in the world currently with over 2 billion monthly active users. Telegram has over 400 million and signal has over 200 million active users monthly. While WhatsApp popularity is almost undefeatable for so many years now there is no doubt that signal and Telegram are undoubtedly on their ways to be tough competitors for WhatsApp.
WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram, all of these three are cross-platforms that allows to send texts and voice messages and share images, other files and videos too. WhatsApp however, offers some extra features too, like it allows; pictures and short videos to be posted on "status" for 24 hours and sharing of locations on chat.
Its good to have variety now in apps too but it doesn't work in your favor if you’re either an indecisive or a very confused soul. To help you achieve a reliable decision, here is the comparison of the three:
The number one thing that the users interested in trying either of these apps want to know is which is the safer option?
WhatsApp collects owners too much information. It had been through several attacks calling it out for compromising its security but now it is end-to-end encrypted, which means that only the sender and the recipients of the messages can read its contents.
Both, signal and WhatsApp uses signal encryption protocol, are end-to-end encrypted which ensures that your content is safe but signal's security is better than whatsapp's. Signal does not offers cloud backup for security reasons whereas whatsapp does. Cloud backups stores your chat history, absent end-to-end encryption in Google's or Apple's cloud.
Telegram's situation is quite another story. It is very unusual of WhatsApp users to switch to Telegram for security reasons since its way less advanced. It does not offer end-to-end encryption. However, there is a secret chat option and by using that two users can chat using the end-to-end encryption but this does not extend to the groups.
Signal users are offered more privacy but Facebook owned WhatsApp has customizable features making the use of the app much easier and the experience more enjoyable. And Telegram allows users to send any type of file up to 1.5Gb whereas the other two apps don’t.
WhatsApp is the absolute perfect social messaging service. It recently also introduced the new in-all payments feature. It supports both individual and group video and voice calls. Group chats work with up to 256 members. Group calls can be done with 8 members at one time.
The list of data that WhatsApp collects by its users is down below,
WhatsApp Data Collection
· Device ID
· User ID
· Advertising Data
· Purchase History
· Coarse Location
· Phone Number
· Email Address
· Contacts
· Product Interaction
· Crash Data
· Performance Data
· Other Diagnostic Data
· Payment Info
· Customer Support
· Product Interaction
· Other User Content
Telegram is mostly preferred for the facility of massive groups. It supports groups with upto 200,000 members. It offers self destructive messages which favors your phone storage.
Telegram Data Collection
· Contact Info
· Contacts
· User ID
Signal, however the latest addition to the internet supported messaging apps, offers group chats too but cant broadcast messages to multiple contacts at once. It supports self destructive messages too like Telegram.
Signal Data Collection
· None
· It only stores your phone number
In terms of privacy and data collection, we have a very clear winner that is Signal. It offers the absolute best and most secure way of communication but other than that it depends on personal preference and what you want from the app to pick one.
