
Telegram vs. Signal vs. Status – The Secure Messaging App of the Future - jonnyz
https://our.status.im/the-secure-messaging-app-of-the-future/
======
skyfaller
Every time I see a decentralized app, I scan the text and sure enough it's
stupid cryptocurrency again. Status appears to integrate with Ethereum.

Ethereum uses proof-of-work. Proof-of-work wastes energy intentionally as a
fundamental design goal, in the middle of a climate crisis where we must use
as little energy as possible. I won't say I won't use something that uses
proof-of-work, e-mail often relies on proof-of-work to stop spam these days,
but I will say that it makes me very skeptical and concerned about what would
happen to energy expenditures if it became popular.

If you work in cryptocurrency or blockchain, please, I'm begging you, don't
use proof-of-work, there has to be something better. Proof-of-stake,
Filecoin's Proof-of-Replication, _anything_.

------
TheCraiggers
Most people will hear that they have to pay money to get their name and
immediately close the page. Many that continue will discover they need to also
use yet another cryptocurrency or will simply say "I don't know how to use
bitcoin" and close the page.

I agree that Signal requiring a phone number is bad, but I have to admit they
may have hit the sweet spot if what Status is proposing is the best privacy-
focused alternative we can come up with. I don't care how private, how fancy
your messaging app is... it's useless if you can't get the majority of your
contacts on it. And frankly, I don't see anybody on my list using this.

Hell, _I_ don't even want to bother with it. I can't imagine convincing my
friends.

~~~
0max
I've barely convinced a close circle of friends to use Signal after using it
for years. The latest cash injection from the former WhatsApp founder led to
plenty of updates that my friends love, like the "encrypted" (iirc?) stickers
made by the community.

------
yza
> At this point, the Telegram and Signal desktop clients are fairly basic

This is not true.

While I would never trust Telegram with sensitive data, their desktop client
is by far the best IM desktop client I have ever tried. It's feature rich,
native and beats Slack, Teams and any of the web/electron based clients.

~~~
RMPR
The changelogs show an almost feature parity between the desktop
[https://desktop.telegram.org/changelog](https://desktop.telegram.org/changelog)
and the mobile [https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-
FOSS/blob/HEA...](https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-
FOSS/blob/HEAD/Changelog.md) which lead me to think that whoever wrote this
article didn't make the right amount of research.

~~~
lozf
The Telegram Desktop client is definitely better than others, but it doesn't
support E2EE, which is a deal breaker for many.

I (and many others) like Telegram for non-sensitive group chats accessible on
mobile, laptop or desktop. But when encryption matters, those chats stay on
Signal.

------
chias
Telegram vs Signal vs Status.... brought to you by Status

~~~
ghostpepper
Status is the only one of the three I've never heard of. The other two are
widely known. I have only used signal but I'm open to hearing why others
prefer Telegram.

~~~
Aaronstotle
I think the main reason people use Telegram is network effect, lots of groups
use Telegram. From a security standpoint it's atrocious, closed sourced and
proprietary encryption. Which is ironic, considering there are lots of crypto-
currency groups that use telegram.

------
sneak
It’s hard to take seriously any analysis that lists Telegram in a list about
“secure messaging”, honestly.

------
RMPR
> At this point, the Telegram and Signal desktop clients are fairly basic

This simply not true, at least for Telegram, just compare the changelogs for
the desktop app
[https://desktop.telegram.org/changelog](https://desktop.telegram.org/changelog)
and the mobile one [https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-
FOSS/blob/HEA...](https://github.com/Telegram-FOSS-Team/Telegram-
FOSS/blob/HEAD/Changelog.md) such a lie make me throw away the entire article,
not to mention the author of the article.

------
therobot24
is this an advertisement?

~~~
yandrypozo
it looks like advertisement for me

~~~
ghostpepper
Looking at the submitter's post history it's clear they only have an account
to submit links about this one product.

------
Uninen
I love that there's a "web 3.0 browser" built in Status.

Whatever this web 3.0 thing is.

------
m-p-3
Signal tying the identity to a phone number is my main gripe about the
platform, and I'll likely consider Status if the platform is as well designed
as Signal

------
yandrypozo
what about Keybase?

~~~
Aaronstotle
Signal vs Keybase vs Status would have been a much better article, and maybe
one that wasn't posted by one of the above companies.

