Whatsapp is the largest messaging service in the world, with over 2 billion monthly active users. Following that, Telegram accounts for 400 million, and Signal stands at a ballpark of 10-20 million monthly active users. But here, we make a comprehensive comparison of the three app’s security and features.
WhatsApp offers almost every feature you might need. You get support for group chats with up to 256 members. You can also broadcast messages to multiple contacts at the same time. It also supports voice and video calls, both for individuals and groups. However, for group video calls, you are restricted to 8 users at any time. Further, WhatsApp also offers a Status feature (also called WhatsApp stories) similar to Instagram stories.
The end to end encryption (E2E) introduced in 2016 on WhatsApp is available on every single mode of communication that the app enables. So all your messages, video calls, voice calls, photos, and anything else you share are end-to-end encrypted. WhatsApp uses the E2E protocol developed by Open Whisper Systems, which is the name behind Signal messenger. That’s a good thing because the Signal protocol is open source, widely peer-reviewed, and is generally considered one of the best protocols for implementing end-to-end encryption in messaging platforms.
WhatsApp has suffered a couple of significant privacy nightmares, especially the recent issue with group chats getting indexed on Google search. That issue has been fixed. However, it was not a good look for the messaging app.
Telegram
Telegram app offers so many features that it’s incredible. Similar to WhatsApp, you get the basics such as chats, group chats, and channels. However, unlike WhatsApp’s 256 member limit, Telegram brings support for groups with up to 200,000 members. It also offers multiple group-specific features such as bots, polls, quizzes, hashtags, and many more, which can make group experiences a lot more fun.
Telegram does offer some level of protection to its users. While Telegram supports E2E encryption, it’s not enabled by default. The only way to use E2E encryption on Telegram is to use its secret chats feature. However, Telegram states that it manages its message storage and decryption keys so that one would require court orders from multiple legal systems around the world to be able to access any of your data. The company says that it has shared 0 bytes of data with third-parties and governments to this date.
Signal
Signal offers its users secure messaging, voice, and video calls, and all communications are end-to-end encrypted. Further, you can create groups. However, you don’t have the option to broadcast messages to multiple contacts at once. Plus, Signal has recently added support for group calling as well.
The Signal is the best for security, be it on the back-end or the user-facing side of the service. Signal uses the open-source Signal Protocol to implement end-to-end encryption. And just like WhatsApp, the E2E encryption covers all forms of communication on Signal.
In terms of security and privacy protection, Signal stands head and shoulder above WhatsApp and Telegram, which makes it the most secure messaging app among the three.
