Telegram is connected to Eastern European and the Middle Eastern countries and not in a good way, and the server-side components are closed source. There is no E2EE by default.
I prefer to keep the contents of my message secure from the panopticon.
It's kind of hard to hash out what you're saying here
TIL I'm not a legit good hearted person.
Guess I'll remove myself from the organ donation registry.
Yes
Some of us aren't paranoid and don't care, and instead just enjoy a messenger that works and doesn't throw bullshit limitations at you.
Telegram also allows to delete any chat in one click. Telegram has support for HTTP, SOCKS, MTPROTO and WEB proxies to evade censorship, Western messengers do not. Telegram is written in C++. Although it is a piece of proprietary garbage and might be connected to the government, at least it is well made piece.
Also it became difficult to register in Telegram, it often asks for 1 euro when trying to register with a fake number. And with a real number the OTP code simply doesn't get delivered to Russia.
And no, Signal is not inferior. If you are really concerned about the phone number issue, use a burner eSIM or purchase a Signal account. Last time I checked though, payment was tied to Apple/Google, inexplicably.
Well, most of those apps try to inject themselves in between you and the rest of the world, by "helpfully" offering to be your SMS handler and phone call replacement.
No thanks.