A further privacy blunder is that Telegram notifies your contacts when you join it – unless you don’t give it permission to access your contacts. The app doesn’t warn you it’s about to ping your contacts, and that’s a big caveat for those who want to use Telegram to keep a low-profile.
Telegram lacks the Stories feature of some competing messaging apps which lets you post images or short videos without messaging a contact directly.
Possibly the biggest disadvantage Telegram has over more popular messages is simply that: popularity. Despite its hundreds of millions of fans, Telegram is still leagues behind WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat in active monthly users.
If you’re in the West and you meet a new contact, the odds are they’ll prefer using WhatsApp to Telegram messenger. Popularity breeds popularity, and trying to dethrone WhatsApp is an uphill battle for Telegram.
Should I use Telegram?
Privacy itself isn’t a particularly attractive product feature in online services. It can be nebulous: We can’t always feel or understand it, and sometimes it’s only when privacy is taken away that we take it seriously.
If you’re a particularly private person and troubled by news reports regarding online security and privacy breaches, you should absolutely consider using Telegram with secret chats enabled. You will have largely the same experience as with more popular messaging apps, with greater peace of mind.
That’s far from saying Telegram will protect you from all privacy terrors the online world presents – you should check out our Android privacy guide for a broader look at that. Telegram just offers a good marriage of popularity and security for those with concerns over other messaging apps.
You can download the app for free from the Google Play Store via the button below – give it a try with a pal if you’re keen. The best way to decide if it’s right for you is to try it for yourself.
Other FAQs
Q: Is Telegram Russian? A: The founder and CEO of Telegram Pavel Durov is Russian, but the company has no ties to the Russian government. In fact, the founder fled Russia in 2015 after being pressured by the Kremlin for his ownership of the social media network VKontakte. The app has also been banned in Russia in the past for not sharing user data with the government. The company is currently based in Dubai.
Q: Does Telegram censor or remove content? A: Telegram does remove copyright-infringing content from public channels, sticker sets, and bots. The company cannot access or remove content from private one-to-one or group chats.
Q: Will Telegram give my data to governments or third parties? A: No. Your data is stored on servers spread across several countries, with encryption keys spread across multiple jurisdictions. This means no one government can force Telegram to give up your data. According to the company’s FAQ page, it has never given governments any private data. In fact, it was briefly banned in Russia for refusing to do so.
Q: Are Telegram calls free? A: Yes. However, if you are not connected to Wi-Fi you may be subject to data charges if you go over your data limit.
Q: Does Telegram require a phone number? A: No, it doesn’t. You can use the app and find contacts using just a username.
Q: Does Telegram have group calls? A: Group voice calls are currently in beta 
. You can try them by installing the beta version of the app. Note that it will only work for admins in the group.
Ultimately though, using Telegram doesn’t necessarily mean your messages are more private or secure than when using WhatsApp or other messaging apps. Server-side data leaks can still happen, and no amount of encryption will help if your end device is already compromised.