Telegram

Telegram is an app for messaging, exchanging files, making voice and video calls. Known as one of the most secure messengers, it also offers elements of a social network and a publishing platform, which makes it extremely popular.

Design and Usability 5/5

Telegram is designed like most messengers, with a traditional contact list, a chat list, a call list and a personal settings tab. It makes the app easy to master if you have used at least one instant messenger.

But what makes Telegram special is its blogging and publishing system. It supports public chats, channels open to read and comment, an easy publishing system named Telegraph, and external links support. In addition, you can use a nick instead of your real name. That makes Telegram a great replacement of anonymous chats and blogging platforms popular in 2010s, an environment for freer communication.

Key Functions 5/5

Telegram has all that WhatsApp and its likes offer. It lets you communicate in chats, make voice or video calls, both private and group ones. Its users also get some cloud storage for sharing and storing files, and a “Saved Messages” chat where you can literally write or send links to yourself. Being completely free, it has no paid options at all for regular users.

There are also numerous extras that have no peers. For example, in Telegram you can send photos in their original quality (select “Send as Files”). With it you can also send links, share documents, edit them right within the app, share materials from other apps or web pages, and so on. One day it may introduce its own cryptocurrency, as soon as legal issues are solved. But even now, it’s one of the most functional social and messaging platforms around.

Security 5/5

Though it requires a phone number as you register, it does not expose it to those who don’t have it already. That’s why Telegram’s got notorious for its popularity in illegal affairs. The service, though, participates in the struggle against piracy, drug dealing, and terrorism.