New messaging app raises the bar on data security

WhatsApp is the market leader when it comes to messaging, with an estimated 700 million active users and counting.

WhatsApp appeals because of its simplicity. There are no accounts to sign up for and no user agreements to read — you just register a new account against your mobile number and start chatting. Unlike many other apps, you don’t get distracted by advertisements on WhatsApp.

But the company has seen its fair share of criticism for being careless with privacy and security. That is, messages used to be sent and received in plain text and hackers have demonstrated how to hijack an account with relative ease. Subsequently, WhatsApp has received some security boosts.

EXTREMELY POLISHED

Little known messaging app Telegram is exploiting the weaknesses of other apps like WhatsApp.

On its first launch, the chat windows of WhatsApp and Telegram look almost identical, right down to the hideous background wallpaper.

Unlike WhatsApp, Telegram requires one to create an account. That account allows Telegram users to sign in on multiple devices across Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and the Web — just like you do on Facebook, which can be accessed from any of your online devices.

The apps on all platforms are extremely polished, with none of the lag of Hangouts or other messaging apps.

For the security conscious, each app can be independently protected with a passcode, and remotely wiped from another device. That is, if I delete a message someone had sent to me on my device, it gets deleted from the originating device, too.

ERASE MESSAGES

The main similarities between Telegram and WhatsApp is that regular chats — including messages, photos, videos and documents — are kept on their servers so you can access them at any time from any device.

But if you are using “secret chats” option of Telegram, all messages are erased from the server as soon as they are delivered to your device and no logs are kept by Telegram. Not even on the cloud.

You can only access those messages from the device they were sent to or from, while an optional self-destruct feature ensures those messages disappear from participating devices as well after a set time.

There’s a bunch of other small features that make Telegram an app to consider. For instance, notifications can be turned on or off on a per chat basis, and pasted website links become little webpage previews within a chat.

Telegram supports audio messages, group chats with up to 200 people, and file transfers up to 1.5gb. That means, a whole class, office colleagues or entire neighbourhood can be on Telegram.

FUNDRAISING

Most encouraging is how often Telegram improves: every week or two a new update brings another new feature to the service. It’s constantly being tweaked.

Telegram doesn’t make money from users. The app owners claim that they will never sell ads, accept outside investment, or sell to another company.

They are operating on what they refer to as “a generous donation”. If they run out of cash, they will go fundraising, same way as charity organisations.

How many users are on Telegram? Last December, the company announced they had 50 million active users, generating 1 billion daily messages and that they had one million new users signing up on their service every week. Compared with WhatsApp’s nearly one billion users, Telegram is way behind the leader.

The big question for most people is whether to remain on the dominant chat app or move to a more secure platform but with fewer friends. It’s your call.

Wambugu is a monitoring and evaluation specialist; [email protected]