At the start of 2021, Signal and Telegram have been at the top of the app store charts. This is because both apps promise more privacy than WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, SMS and other messaging apps. 

Since Snowden slipped us the truth, the world has become more and more wary of tech giants and their harvesting of our data. So we’ve all been asking, how can we as users protect our digital footprints from being tracked and hacked? Is GDPR really enough? What does it mean now that WhatsApp is owned by Facebook? 

Ensuring our privacy seems to be becoming more and more difficult. Although WhatsApp is still the largest messaging service in the world with over 2 billion monthly active users, people have been dropping off the platform like flies. A big reason due to that WhatsApp has changed its policy, allowing Facebook to tap into its users data.

Instead people are opting for other messaging apps where they feel their data and conversations will be more protected and at the top of everyone's radar right now is Signal and Telegram. But what are these new apps and how are they different or more secure? 

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Here are the key things to know about each app: 

Signal

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• 20 million monthly active users
• Supports self-destructing messages, where messages are deleted after a certain amount of time 
• You can have up to 1000 people in one group 
• Ability to automatically blur faces in photos you send 
• Offers multi-layers of security with end-to-end encryption as well as encrypting of your metadata, making it the most secure messaging app
• Conversations are stored on your device only 
• Developed by a not-for-profit and driven by donations 

Telegram

• 400 million monthly active users
• You can have up to 200,000 people in a group and is known for its large group experiences (quizzes, polls, bots etc.) 
• Supports self-destructing messages, where messages are deleted after a certain amuont of time
• You can share up to 1.5G of files! 
• Offers cloud synchronisation so you can continue your conversations from multiple apps

Both apps have solid features and offer great security for users. While Signal has a clear advantage when it comes to privacy, Telegram offers a variety of convenience features. We recommend testing both out and seeing which suits you. 

WhatsApp have recently revealed what will happen if you choose not to accept their new privacy terms by 15th May 2021. By not accepting, the app’s functionality will start to decrease, with users no longer able to send or read messages on the app. Receiving calls and notifications will still be allowed, but this will only be for a limited time. Read more from Instagram here.

We advise taking the next couple of months to review the upcoming changes, and convince everyone in your WhatsApp groups to jump ship. It’s always better to be safe than sorry, right?!