What is Telegram? How it works and how it compares to WhatsApp

What the app Telegram is, how it works and how it compares to WhatsApp

Transcript

00:00So, you've heard all about the app Telegram and you're wondering, what exactly is going

00:04on?

00:05Hi, I'm technology writer Matt Monaghan and I'm going to take you through the differences

00:08between Telegram and other popular messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

00:14So, what is Telegram?

00:17That's probably the question you've got on your mind.

00:19It's basically just a messaging app similar to WhatsApp, so you can have contacts, you

00:24can message people, there can be group chats, but it also features some more social networking

00:29features that aren't usually on WhatsApp, so it's a bit like a Facebook group in some

00:34ways because there's channels, like broadcast channels, and in those channels people can

00:38reply to each other as if they're in sort of like a Facebook group, like one of your

00:42local Facebook groups, they can, you know, chat back and forth, people can post stories,

00:47you can follow people on Telegram, but also it boasts about its privacy, so there's often

00:53an uptick in people like signing up for Telegram when there's issues with privacy breaches

00:59on other apps, but it works a bit differently than WhatsApp, so WhatsApp has end-to-end

01:04encryption and that covers your messages, your group chats, your video calls, your images,

01:11everything that you do on WhatsApp, whereas Telegram does have end-to-end encryption and,

01:18you know, proper levels of privacy, but it's in a form called secret chats and you have

01:23to like actually go out your way to set that up, so you have to go through a process within

01:27the app to set that up, then nobody can see what's in those messages, whereas outside

01:34of that it's a bit less, you know, Telegram stores that on the cloud, Telegram can see

01:40what's in those messages, especially if it's like public chats, but yeah, that's the main

01:45difference really.