blog: Why I use Telegram?

_posts/2016-05-21-why-telegram.md

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+---
+layout: post
+comments: true
+title: "Why I use Telegram?"
+category: [english]
+tags: [english, IRC, Telegram, security, privacy]
+redirect_from: /whytelegram.html
+---
+
+
+*I get often asked why do I use Telegram even if it's known to have bad
+ crypto. The answer is that crypto doesn't always matter.*
+
+The main reason is usernames, I can take one and share it to people for
+them to contact me instead of giving my phone number to everyone. This
+also applies to groups where people see only the name and optionally
+username, not the phone number (like at [WhatsApp] and possibly [Signal]).
+
+This makes [Telegram] somewhat more open version of [Slack] as anyone can
+join public groups without being invited by email address, public link
+or invite link that group creator can get.
+
+[Telegram] also is cross-platform and welcomes third party clients unlike
+[WhatsApp] and Signal (which gives me the impression of being a little more
+transparent WhatsApp *[reason](https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37#issuecomment-217211165)*).
+The official clients are open source (but like Android the source code
+always seems to be released some time after the release) and there are
+unofficial clients for [Sailfish OS] and [Ubuntu Touch].
+
+And back to the [bad crypto], I don't see what it matters if Telegram can
+read the messages I send with cloud chat or attacker the secret chat
+messages if the same groups there are on [Facebook] where [Facebook] can
+read all the messages or the groups are [relayed to IRC] where most of
+people sadly connect using plain text connection and send the plaintext
+around the internet where anyone at correct position could read the
+messages.
+
+If we compare [Telegram] to [IRC], [Telegram] immediately has the
+advatance of being in groups/online receiving messages always since you
+join the group. With [IRC] you would disconnect and join all the time when
+you power off your devices unless you have took the time to learn using
+shells (terminal multiplexer, CLI IRC client) or bouncers.
+
+It seems like IRC has very little requirements (without shell/bouncer), but
+Telegram only requires phone number for logging in / registering and you
+can do that on any client even [web.telegram.org](https://web.telegram.org)
+and you see the same (not secret chat) messages on all clients. One could
+argue that SMS verification is insecure, but you can enable two factor
+authentication from the settings and enable password that you will always
+be asked for in addition to the SMS/Telegram code.
+
+* * * * *
+
+But what if you need the stronger crypto? If you only communicate with
+Android/iOS users, [Signal] might work for you, if you also need to
+communicate with Windows Phone users, you must probably use [WhatsApp]
+where most of your family/friends most likely already are.
+
+Most universal protocol would probably be [XMPP] and you can use e2e
+encryption with it either by [OTR], [OpenPGP] or [OMEMO] where [OMEMO]
+is at time of writing only supported by [Conversations], (Android-only,
+[free on F-Droid](https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=conversations&fdid=eu.siacs.conversations))
+and [Gajim], (cross-platform desktop client).
+
+*PS. I encourage using some of the other options instead of having very
+ private/secret dicussions on [Telegram] as it's always possible to give
+ your number or [XMPP] ID and send people to contact you there. If you need
+ XMPP ID, try [podupti.me](https://podupti.me/) where you will also get a
+ Diaspora\* account. (Note that not all pods have XMPP enabled, check the
+ services offered.)*
+
+*PPS. I am somewhat unhappy with this post as it looks worse than I
+ imagined, but [improving pull requests are always welcome](https://github.com/Mikaela/mikaela.github.io/edit/master/_posts/2016-05-21-why-telegram.md).*
+
+[WhatsApp]:https://www.whatsapp.com/
+[Signal]:https://whispersystems.org/
+[Slack]:https://slack.com/
+[Telegram]:https://telegram.org/
+[Sailfish OS]:https://github.com/Dax89/harbour-sailorgram
+[Ubuntu Touch]:https://uappexplorer.com/app/com.ubuntu.telegram:
+[Facebook]:https://facebook.com/
+[IRC]:http://ircv3.net/
+[XMPP]:https://xmpp.org/
+[OTR]:https://otr.cypherpunks.ca/
+[OpenPGP]:https://gnupg.org/
+[OMEMO]:https://conversations.im/omemo/
+[Conversations]:https://conversations.im/
+[Gajim]:https://gajim.org/
+[bad crypto]:http://security.stackexchange.com/a/49802
+[relayed to IRC]:https://github.com/FruitieX/teleirc