Signal vs. Telegram: Which messaging app is better?

By Techie Teacher Last updated May 9, 2024

In the world of privacy-focused messaging applications, Telegram and Signal stand out. Both are highly praised for their emphasis on privacy and security, but they have notable differences. Here’s our breakdown of how these two popular apps compare.

What is Signal?

Signal is a secure messaging app that places a strong emphasis on privacy and encryption. Developed by the Signal Foundation, a non-profit organization, its primary objective is to offer users a secure and private messaging platform. Signal staunchly supports the use of end-to-end encryption, ensuring that only intended recipients can access sent messages and media, with no intermediaries. Moreover, Signal’s open-source code enhances transparency, enabling quick identification of any potential flaws.

What is Telegram?

Telegram is a messaging app that allows users to send messages, make voice and video calls, share files, and create groups. Though Telegram has been around since 2013, it gained prominence in 2019-2020 as a platform used by protestors to coordinate large gatherings. This was largely due to its group chat function, which can accommodate up to 200,000 members, as well as its “channels” feature, which allows organizers to post updates. Additionally, users can maintain greater anonymity by keeping their phone numbers hidden.

Is Signal better than Telegram?

Encryption

Signal

Signal’s security model revolves around the Signal Protocol, ensuring end-to-end encryption for messages and calls, guaranteeing only the sender and recipient can access message content. Signal’s servers have no access to communication content.

Telegram encrypts every chat and call, offering end-to-end encryption for one-to-one communication through Secret Chats. These messages can’t be forwarded, and a self-destruct timer can be set for added privacy. However, other types of chats, group calls, and channels use secure client-server encryption. Telegram encrypts data stored on servers, with keys separated from the protected data.

What this means: Signal prioritizes stronger security with end-to-end encryption, while Telegram’s varied encryption methods provide flexibility.

Ease of signup

Both apps require only a phone number for signup.

Signal uses the phone number as an identifier.

Telegram also uses phone numbers as identifiers but allows users to choose a username for communication without revealing their phone number. Signal is testing usernames as well.

What this means: Signup processes are similar, but Telegram’s username feature enhances privacy and ease of connection.

Device support

Signal

Signal apps are available for Android and iOS. Desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux are linked to the phone app. iPad has an app, but there’s no dedicated Android tablet app. No web-based service is available due to encryption security.

Telegram apps are available for Android, iOS, tablets, and desktops (Windows, macOS, Linux) without phone app linking. Telegram offers a web-based version for browser access. All Telegram apps sync across devices without a limit.

What this means: Telegram supports more platforms and offers more device sync options, prioritizing flexibility over Signal’s stringent security requirements.

Overall features

Signal

Signal boasts end-to-end encryption as its flagship feature, ensuring utmost security in all conversations. Most of Signal’s functionalities are geared towards enhancing security:

End-to-end encryption: Signal employs cutting-edge encryption technology (powered by the open-source Signal Protocol) to safeguard messages, voice and video calls, ensuring that only the sender and recipient can access communication content.
Self-destructing messages: Users can set timers on messages, causing them to vanish from both sender’s and recipient’s devices after a predetermined time.
No ads or trackers: As a non-profit organization, Signal operates without ads, affiliate marketers, or trackers, prioritizing user privacy.
Screen lock: Signal features a screen security function that prevents message previews from appearing in the recent apps list, enhancing privacy.
App authentication: Users can set a PIN or utilize biometric authentication to access the app, adding an extra layer of security.
Sealed sender: This feature enhances privacy by concealing the sender’s identity from Signal servers, further securing communication.
Safety numbers: Each Signal conversation is assigned a unique safety number, allowing participants to verify the security of their messages and calls, guarding against potential man-in-the-middle attacks.
Note to self: Signal enables users to send messages to themselves, facilitating note-taking and keeping essential information accessible across devices.
Relay calls: Users can opt to route calls through the Signal server to prevent disclosing their IP address to their contact, bolstering call privacy.
View-once media: This feature permits users to send photos and videos that can only be viewed once before disappearing, akin to self-destructing messages but tailored for multimedia content.

While Telegram prioritizes security, its primary focus lies in providing users with flexibility and convenience, distinguishing it from Signal.

Cloud-based: Telegram securely stores messages in the cloud, enabling users to access their messages from multiple devices simultaneously, minimizing data loss.
Large group chats: Telegram supports large groups of up to 200,000 members, fostering extensive community interaction.
Channels: Users can set up channels for large communities, facilitating public broadcasting to wide audiences.
Automatic responses: Telegram’s bot platform allows the creation and utilization of bots for automated services, news delivery, gaming, and integration with various services, enriching the app’s functionality.
File sharing: Telegram permits users to share files of up to 2 GB each, accommodating a wide range of file types, surpassing many other messaging apps in capacity.
Secret Chats: End-to-end encrypted Secret Chats ensure that only the sender and recipient can access messages, with support for self-destructing messages, enhancing privacy.
Self-destructing messages: Users can set messages, media, and files to self-destruct after a designated period, providing additional privacy control.
Customizable themes: Telegram users can personalize the app’s appearance with different themes and backgrounds, tailoring the user experience to their preferences.
Stickers and emoji: A vast library of stickers and emoji is available on Telegram, with the option to create and upload custom stickers, enriching communication.
Polls and quizzes: Telegram groups and channels can host polls and quizzes, promoting engagement and interaction within communities.
Voice and video calls: Telegram offers high-quality voice and video calls, facilitating seamless communication.
Username feature: Users can communicate without revealing their phone numbers, using usernames instead, enhancing privacy and simplifying connections with others.
Folders and tabs: Telegram enables users to organize chats into folders, streamlining conversation management, especially useful for handling a large volume of chats.

This suggests that Signal is more focused on incorporating features that bolster the privacy of your conversations, whereas Telegram offers a greater variety of tools for communicating with large groups and enjoying different aspects of the app.

Group chat features

Signal

In 2020, Signal significantly overhauled its video group chat functionality, ensuring it’s end-to-end encrypted like all other aspects of the app. Key features of Signal’s group chats include:

End-to-end encryption applied to all messages and calls, encompassing voice and video calls for groups.
Designated group administrators empowered to add or remove members, as well as manage group settings such as changing the group name, avatar, and disappearing messages timer.
Members have the ability to mention specific individuals in a group chat for direct notifications.
Administrators can generate an invitation link to facilitate adding new members without requiring their phone numbers.

Telegram has garnered attention for its ability to accommodate a large number of users in group chats—up to 200,000 members, surpassing other chat apps like Signal (1,000 members) and WhatsApp (1,024 members). Key features of Telegram’s group chats include:

Support for groups containing up to 200,000 members, the largest capacity among chat apps.
Groups can be upgraded to Supergroups as they expand, unlocking advanced features like admin tools and pinned messages.
Group administrators have control over membership management, group settings adjustment, chat moderation, and the establishment of advanced member permissions.
Administrators can create polls and quizzes directly within the chat interface.
Voice and video calls are supported within groups.
Telegram bots can be integrated into groups to offer automated services, entertainment, or moderation functionalities.
Members can be directly replied to or mentioned, ensuring messages reach the intended recipients through notifications.
Groups can be set as public, with a searchable alias for easy discovery and open membership, or private, where membership is by invitation only.

What this means: Telegram offers a plethora of features for its group chat service, but it doesn’t incorporate end-to-end encryption for group chats like Signal does. While Signal’s group chats may have fewer features, they prioritize end-to-end encryption, highlighting a tradeoff between versatility and privacy.

Privacy and security

Signal places a strong emphasis on privacy and security, employing various measures such as end-to-end encryption (E2EE), disappearing messages, and view-once media (as listed above) to ensure the confidentiality of conversations. Although Telegram may not match Signal’s security standards, it offers a plethora of functionalities. Both platforms are open-source, allowing for transparency and scrutiny of their app codes for potential security vulnerabilities.

Messaging App Comparison

Feature	Signal	Telegram
Pricing	Free	Free, with paid tier
Supported devices	Apps for phones, desktop, and tablets, but no web-based service	Apps for phones, desktop, and tablets, with web-based service
Active user base	40 million	800 million
Encryption	End-to-end encryption for all conversations	Secret Chats are end-to-end encryption, but other services use client-server encryption
Open source	Yes	Yes
Data collection	Barely anything beyond knowing your phone number	Metadata like IP address, devices and Telegram apps you’ve used, history of username changes
Self-destructing chats	Yes	Yes
Authentication to access the app	Passcode or biometrics	Passcode or biometrics
Hide your phone number	No	Yes
Two-factor authentication	PIN set by you	Password set by you
Group capacity	1,000 members	200,000 members
File compression	Files can be sent with or without compression	Files can be sent with or without compression
Transfer limit	100MB	2GB (Premium is 4GB)
Voice calls	Yes	Yes
Video calls	Yes	Yes
Premium tier	No paid tier	Telegram Premium, offering additional features
Ads	No	Yes

FAQ’s

What is Signal?

Signal is a secure messaging app developed by the Signal Foundation, focusing on privacy and encryption. It ensures that only the intended recipients can access messages and media through end-to-end encryption.

What is Telegram?

Telegram is a messaging app that allows users to send messages, make voice and video calls, share files, and create groups. It gained popularity for its large group chat capacity and features like channels and automatic responses.

Is Signal better than Telegram in terms of security?

Signal prioritizes security with end-to-end encryption for all conversations, whereas Telegram offers end-to-end encryption only for Secret Chats. However, Telegram provides a wide range of functionalities.

How do Signal and Telegram differ in terms of user base?

Signal has an active user base of around 40 million, whereas Telegram boasts over 800 million active users worldwide.

What data do Signal and Telegram collect?

Signal collects minimal data, primarily limited to your phone number. On the other hand, Telegram gathers metadata such as IP addresses, device information, and username change history.

Do Signal and Telegram support self-destructing chats?

Yes, both Signal and Telegram offer self-destructing chats, allowing users to set timers on messages for automatic deletion.

Can I use Signal and Telegram on multiple devices?

Signal supports apps for phones, desktops, and tablets but lacks a web-based service. Meanwhile, Telegram offers apps for various devices and a web-based service for browser access.

Does Signal or Telegram offer a premium tier?

Telegram offers a premium tier called Telegram Premium, providing additional features beyond its free version. Signal does not have a paid tier and remains entirely free to use.

Do Signal and Telegram display ads?

Signal is ad-free, maintaining its operations as a non-profit organization. Telegram, however, displays ads to support its platform.

Conclusion

Signal and Telegram are leading messaging apps, each with its own strengths. Signal prioritizes robust security with end-to-end encryption, while Telegram offers a broader range of features and boasts a larger user base. Choosing between them depends on individual preferences, whether it’s strict privacy measures or diverse communication options.