
Telegram lets you add bots to conversations, but this means that conversations you add bots to have less private encryption. That’s a tradeoff-unlike in Signal, where your conversations are all stored locally on your devices, the conversations are all stored on Telegram’s servers. Telegram offers cloud message synchronization-you can even sign into Telegram on the web and continue your conversations. In Signal, you can only transfer files up to 100 MB in size. In Telegram, you can transfer files up to 2 GB in size. In Signal, you can only have up to 1000 people. In Telegram, you can have up to 200,000 in a group chat. While Signal has the clear advantage when it comes to privacy, Telegram offers a variety of convenience features that Signal doesn’t have. RELATED: What Is Signal, and Why Is Everyone Using It? Telegram Has Some Niceties Signal Doesn’t Offer Telegram Signal also has other built-in features around privacy, including the ability to automatically blur faces in the photos you send. Telegram is run by a for-profit corporation and has wrestled with a variety of plans to make money, including an ill-fated cryptocurrency offering. The Signal app is developed by the Signal Foundation, a non-profit organization founded by donations. Some security researchers have argued that Signal’s encryption protocol is better and more bulletproof than Telegram’s MTProto encryption protocol, although this is a complicated and disputed topic.

#DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SIGNAL AND TELEGRAM SOFTWARE#
The code for Telegram’s apps is open-source, but Telegram’s server software is not open-source. Signal is completely open-source-both the code for the Signal clients and the code for the Signal server can be found on GitHub. But you can’t just log into Signal on the web and find all your conversations right there.) (You can still use Signal between multiple devices and synchronize messages from one device to another. In Telegram, they’re stored on Telegram’s servers and can be synchronized between your devices. Unlike Telegram, Signal offers encrypted group chats.Īll your Signal conversations are stored only on your device by default.

All Telegram messages are encrypted between you and the Telegram server, but the company in charge of Telegram could technically view your messages on its server if it liked-unless you start a “Secret Chat.”Īlso, in Telegram, you can’t have a group “Secret Chat.” You can only get end-to-end encryption in conversations between two people. You have to start a “ Secret Chat.” In Signal, everything is a secret chat-by default, and always. Telegram offers optional end-to-end encryption. The company in charge of Signal, the Signal Foundation, couldn’t even see your messages if it wanted to. All conversations and other communications on Signal are end-to-end encrypted between devices running Signal. Signal is built from the ground up for privacy, and it shows. Signal Has Better Privacy Features Than Telegram Signal

#DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SIGNAL AND TELEGRAM FULL#
Both offer optional desktop apps so that you can chat on a Windows PC, Mac, or Linux system, giving you the option to chat on your computer with its full keyboard. Each is free, and a phone number is all you need to sign up for either. Signal and Telegram both offer apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Signal is owned by a non-profit organization, while Telegram is owned by a for-profit company.īoth Signal and Telegram are chat apps with all the standard features, from stickers to photo and file transfers to voice and video calls. Signal and Telegram both advertise themselves as private and secure. Here’s what you should know-and which you should use. But there are some big differences between the two. Both chat apps promise more privacy than WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and SMS. The encrypted messaging services have become the world’s hottest apps over the last week, driven by growing anxiety over the power of the biggest tech companies and privacy concerns.Īt the start of 2021, Signal and Telegram are on top of the app store charts.
