Whatsapp is what BBM was back when Blackberries were cool. Loads of people use it every day and nobody seems to care about switching, even though there’s better alternatives staring them in the face. Remember when everyone used BBM and you were the first of your friends to switch to this way better thing called Whatsapp? Remember how they all thought you were weird and asked you “why should I use Whatsapp just for you?”? Yeah, that’s my life with Telegram right now. This post aims to convert you. Call me a Telegram e-vangelist if you like, but I like to think I use the best solution for my needs. Telegram is the best solution for me.

First I’ll start with what I usually want to do and how I can do that in each app. Then I’ll compare the experience in each app and use that comparison to compile a list of pros and cons for Telegram.

Here’s a little table showing some of their differences:



Sending a message

This one is obvious. I want to send a simple message to someone.

Pros

Availability: I can send this message from practically any computer. Telegram has a Chrome extension, a web app and mobile apps for Blackberry, IOS, WP and Android and a slew of other operating systems. Whatsapp also has mobile apps on all major operating systems and a web app, but the web app requires that you have a mobile device on the same network as the computer you’re using with Whatsapp installed. Telegram does not. You could use Telegram and not even have a smartphone! All you need is a phone number so you can create and log into your Telegram.

Cons

Reliability: I noticed that Whatsapp is a lot faster. Not by a whole lot, but on a weak connection Whatsapp seems more reliable: sending and receiving messages on a weak, spotty connection seems to be easier on Whatsapp.

Sharing Media

Sometimes you need to send a file to someone. Either a video or your dissertation or a really awesome cat picture you found somewhere.

Pros

Size : Whatsapp limits you to 16mb for videos, while Telegram gives you up to 1.5gb. This can be both good and bad: It’s really easy for you to send someone a 4k video, but you could potentially chew through their data when their telegram automatically downloads your massive file. They could disable automatic downloading, though.

: Whatsapp limits you to 16mb for videos, while Telegram gives you up to 1.5gb. This can be both good and bad: It’s really easy for you to send someone a 4k video, but you could potentially chew through their data when their telegram automatically downloads your massive file. They could disable automatic downloading, though. Sorting: Every now and then you’ll want to find a file you and a friend shared. You could look through all your shared files in a huge list (if you, like me, keep your chats open indefinitely) or you could sort by date and type of media. Whatsapp doesn’t do this.

Cons

None that I can think of: Telegram just handles media sharing better.

Miscellaneous

Whatsapp is a no-frills experience. It does what it says on the box and nothing else. Telegram is almost the opposite.

This might sound terrible on the surface, but it could actually be useful. There’s a few bots already, but no official way to find one you might want. You can go to https://telegram.me/storebot and have a look yourself.

Usernames serve no purpose other than making you easier to find. Setting a username allows you to be found via the global search (folks can search for your username) and allows anyone to message you once they have your username. If you don’t like that then just don’t set a username and your privacy will be safe. If you feel like grabbing your incredible vanity username (or your business name) then do so early. Usernames are given out on a first-come first-serve basis.

Pros

Brand Communication: If you have a brand you want to promote and allow people to communicate with directly then this is really easy. You could be better served by a channel, though.

Cons

Privacy: Being easy to find isn’t for everyone. Thankfully if you want to protect your privacy, you can just not set a username.

Open API

This is my favorite bit. Basically it’ll allow anyone to build apps that integrate and work with Telegram. Try imagining a world where you could get news from ESPN directly in Whatsapp or tweet directly from a chat. Telegram can do that (someone just has to build the functionality in via the API).

Pros

Integration: No one app is the best and usually when an app tries to do everything it ends up sucking at them all. Telegram seems to be heading in the “one app you’ll need for all your communication” direction, and while that’s commendable I think it’ll ultimately work out badly. That being said though, this is a pro because with the API integration the opposite solution is very easy for developers. If you can’t have one app do everything well, you should be able to have multiple apps do one thing well each, yes?

Cons

None: I really don’t see a downside to this. Sure some unscrupulous person builds a mischievous application to do bad things to you, but then all you have to do is not use it, right? The bot store already allows users to review apps, so you should be fine once you’re careful and if you’re using a service to integrate with Telegram you’ll make sure it’s trustworthy, right? Security begins at home, people!