Telegram is Epic!

 

When it comes to chose a messaging app then there are a ton of messaging apps out there in the market right now and when its comes to popularity then none other than WhatsApp comes to mind. WhatsApp has been a dominant player in the messaging market for years with over 4 billion downloads and a billion users but recently since WhatsApp's new privacy problems, new players have started to get traction in the messaging area. the other two popular ones are Signal and Telegram, both of which have reached their peak downloads in the last few months after the WhatsApp controversy and both of them are much more privacy centric since they don't have an ads based revenue system. But today I am here to talk about my favorite messenger service Telegram that I have been using for over two years now.

Now the thing with Telegram is that it is a feature rich messenger. And by feature rich I mean really feature rich to the point no other messenger service comes even close it. Lets have a look at some of these feature:-

The ability to use a username - We as a user may feel a little concerned when we have to give our personal contact number to an unknown person to start a chat and we don't want to do that. Well no worries because while making your Telegram account it asks you to make a username starting with @. Each user has his or her own unique username and if a user feels like that they do not want to give their personal contact details, then they can give their username instead to start a chat. You will be able to chat without giving your number. A very handy feature. Any body can search you through your username.

The ability to hide your phone number - Another really handy feature is the ability to hide your phone number from unknown people. This way the username will be the only option for others outside your contact to identify you and when they do connect with you, they cannot see your phone number since it was hidden.

Cross-connection between different devices- Since Telegram stores all its encrypted data on its servers, it is very easily possible to log in a Telegram account through multiple devices and each device will be synchronized with each other. This makes life so much easier and hassle free as a user as he/she can log in from any device at anytime and all his/her chats will be intact.

The 2GB File share limit- Oh this is my favorite feature by far. The ability to share a single file up to 2GB makes life so much easier when compared to WhatsApp's and Signal's measly 100MB limit. This makes it so much more effortless to send huge file and massive 4k videos to other users. This is the biggest advantage that Telegram has over its competition.

It can be used as an Unlimited Cloud Storage - Yes! you heard it right! Telegram can actually be used as an unlimited storage and that to for free! Yes single file size is limited to 2GB but you can upload unlimited number of files without any problems. You can upload to your personal 'saved messages' or create custom private channels based on the content that you are uploading!

Speaking of channels.......

Telegram has Channels - Biggest game changer after the file sharing limit is the ability to create channels. Any user on Telegram can create both public and private channels and they can post whatever content that they like to post. Other people can subscribe or follow the channel and can consume the content that is being posted on your channel. With private channel, you can send invite links to the only people you want to have in your channel. Unlimited number of people can joint your channel and you can even create a discussion group related to the channel where followers can chat with each other.

 Groups - In telegram, a user can make both public and private groups. Anyone can join public groups and only people who have the invite link can join the private group. Most importantly Telegram Groups can have up to 200,000 members each!

Has the end-to-end encryption - By default, the end-to-end encryption is disabled in Telegram but it can be enabled by starting a 'Secret Chat'. Just like any other end-to-end, in secret chats, the messages are stored on the device of each user. Of course that will disable the advantages of the cross-device sync but that is the sacrifice that a person has to make if he/she wants 100% privacy.

Stickers - It also has a ton of stickers. Like it has so many stickers that it is impossible for anyone to even chose which sticker should be used. And all the sticker sets are super impressive and unique.

Smooth, Silky and Buttery - Telegram is super smooth and I mean very smooth and silky and buttery. It has super fluid animations and is very fluid to use and the user experience is really good. No one comes close to its fluidity.

Open Source - Telegram along with its competition Signal are the only two messengers that are open-source. Anyone can look into the code of both these apps and see what are they doing under the hood. People can use the Telegram API to make their own messengers based on the the Telegram messenger and people can add their own specific extra features as well.

Bots - Another really unique feature that keeps Telegram ahead of its competition are Bots. No other messenger has Bots. Bots can be created using the Telegram Bot API and they are completely automatic and A.I based. They can do anything according to Telegram like teach, play, search, broadcast, remind, connect, integrate with other service and pass commands. Most of the times, a user does not even need to type much within a bot as most bots have customized buttons. They are really unique and fresh.

Self-Destruct Messages- WhatsApp recently copied this feature but Telegram had this feature in it for ages. You can send self destruct messages to any person. The messages will be deleted on both ends along with the file that was send along with the message which may be a picture or a video or a document depending on the timer that the sender had set.

And these are just some of the unique features that Telegram has that makes it really epic. There are many more features that I either do not know about or never use but looking at it overall, Telegram is way ahead of the competition and is very feature rich. None of the other messengers come even close to Telegram when it comes to flexibility and user experience and it to me is a shocker that it is not the biggest messenger in the world. Well the thing is, WhatsApp entered the battlefield before Telegram. WhatsApp got a head start and gained all the user base and now WhatsApp is deeply a part of the life style of people and most people will not even bother to switch and transfer from WhatsApp to Telegram because switching from a messenger is a hassle without a doubt since a person has to backup thousands of messages and documents and all our friends and families and professional contacts are on WhatsApp. But still overall, Telegram is the boss and its only improving with time and is only getting better as it has its fare share of user base which is only going to get bigger. Me who has been a decently long time user of Telegram always struggles to use WhatsApp and I only use it because my friends and family are on WhatsApp and going back from Telegram to WhatsApp is a struggle. Maybe someday, Telegram will get the upper hand and will become the biggest messenger but yeah, Telegram Is Epic!!!