@witziege IMO the biggest problem is no end-to-end encryption by default - a company that can access way more of your chats by default than WhatsApp can is not really a good WhatsApp alternative IMO.
If E2EE isn't a required feature (e.g. for mostly public group chats) or when paying attention to using secret chats, it's definitely not a bad software though, especially from a UX perspective.
@momar @tastytea Missing E2EE in default chats should be a dealbreaker for me. I knew about that already but I got fooled by Durov's euphemistic framing on Telegrams encryption methods. His use of words suggest Telegram is a save messenger for the majority of people but it's basically like having the traditional post to seal your envelopes...not very convincing.
@momar @tastytea
Source (if you are interested): https://telegra.ph/Why-Isnt-Telegram-End-to-End-Encrypted-by-Default-08-14
@witziege You can't use it without a valid phone number, or can you? Also it's unclear how telegram is financed, which is only a problem because E2EE is not the standard and server code is not openly available.
@t_aus_m Yes, you need a phone number to register and verify. The financial situtation will be a bit more clear when Telegram introduces ads in one-to-many chats later this year.
Closed server software doesnt matter from my pov b/c you cant verify it anyway and its impossible to self host.
@witziege Centralized infrastructure, closed-source server software, blocked in several countries, decryption keys are stored on the server.
Here are my personal negative points about telegram: No control over encryption keys, non-free server software (but thats arguably not so problematic b/c how to verify anyway), centralized, not federated...that's it for now.