As a customer, we all want privacy. We want our files to be transferred from one end to another end securely. Early this year, Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder and CEO, had his iPhone hacked after receiving a 4.4MB video file which contains malware on his WhatsApp. The incident was under investigation by the FBI.

Soon after, Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram wanted Jeff Bezos to use Telegram app instead of Facebook-owned WhatsApp. We know that we cannot say "WhatsApp is better than Telegram", or vice-versa until we have made a comparison between these two popular chat apps.

The rise of messaging apps, WhatsApp and Telegram

In October 2019, Telegram had 300 million users around the world, and this is a pretty impressive number. WhatsApp has over 1.5 billion users in 2019, making WhatsApp a lead among the other chat app competitors.

WhatsApp and Telegram shares many look-alike features, which most feature originated by Telegram. These features include web client, group chats, file sharing and message deletion. When it comes to file sharing, Telegram allows up to 1.5 GB of file transfer while Whatsapp allows up to 100MB. WhatsApp allows up to 256 members in a chat group, whereas Telegram pushed the chat group members from 5,000 to 100,000.

The one thing that WhatsApp offers, which is not available on Telegram is the support of video calls. Video calls are one of the most requested features for Telegram.

WhatsApp and Telegram both offer the same security degree. However, Telegram allows users to create a secret chat group and self destruct timer function. These two security features are not available on WhatsApp. Yet, WhatsApp uses a 60 digit code QR code verification to prevent unauthorised access.

When it comes to the security of chat backups, Telegram has a secure framework which allows the users to have more control over the chat backups. It's web client, the Telegram Desktop, enables users to log in and able to generate backup which can be saved in HTML or JSON file format. Additionally, Telegram Passport protect it's users' personal identification documents with better end-to-end encryption.

WhatsApp's chat backup are not stored on WhatsApp's servers. Therefore, backing up your chat history can be complicated. For iPhone users, WhatsApp chat backups are stored on iCloud. This means that the messages and media are not protected by Whatsapp end-to-end encryption. For Andriod users, WhatsApp chat history can be backup on Google Drive.

Five features on WhatsApp everyone love

Voice and video calls

WhatsApp supports both voice and video calls. As long as you have a strong and stable network connection, you will get to enjoy a high quality of call experience.

Notification for delivery and read

WhatsApp informs the sender if the message has been delivered and read by the other party promptly. In the chat system, WhatsApp will display double ticks when a message lands on the recipient's device successfully. The ticks will turn blue when the message has been read. WhatsApp will also indicate the timestamp of the message once read.

End-to-end encryption everywhere

While Telegram uses end-to-end encryption only for secret chat, WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption everywhere.

Backup of chat histories

WhatsApp's current data backing system is secured, but some users may not be happy with it. Therefore, WhatsApp will provide an additional security layer to protect the backup chat histories on Google Drive. The chat backup will be encrypted with a password where neither Google or WhatsApp can access.

Status messages

WhatsApp users can put status messages on their profile, which can be viewed by anyone in your contacts list.

Ten features on Telegram everyone love

Cloud storage

Telegram offers cloud storage for its users to backup their chat histories such as images and files. Cloud storage provides the convenience of users when they log out and log in simultaneously on different devices. So, there is no worry about backup and restore of Telegram chat history. With cloud storage, you only need to upload your file once, and you can reshare the same file to someone else to save your data.

Quality of image

Telegram offers compression options for its users for both image and video files. When it comes to viewing, uncompressed images and video provide excellent quality.

Username

Telegram users can communicate with another Telegram User through username if one doesn't have a contact number.