*** NOTE: ALL INFORMATION IS ACCURATE AT DATE OF PUBLISHING ***
I wrote about some changes coming in WhatsApp, and what pushed me to start looking around for alternative messaging services and settling on Telegram. This article has already gathered more attention than I first thought it would, but with many citing Signal as their app of choice. I’m not stating one is better than the other, but in fairness, I thought it would be good to do an overview of the features in Signal. Finally, I’ve got a comparison table of Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal at the bottom of this article.
First things first, I’ve had a few articles shared with me that cover what data is collected by each app. This one is a good one, and also includes Facebook Messenger. My god, this is awful! Looking at that list, Signal fairs the best in terms of the data shared, because it’s absolutely nothing.
The Same As Telegram
Ok, so first, what is the same between Telegram and Signal?
- It’s intuitive, and if you have used WhatsApp or Telegram, you will need no time to really get used to Signal
- You can message individuals that are in the contacts list on your phone
- There is an app for Android and iPhone
- If you want to send messages from your laptop/desktop computer, you can do that too
- You can create groups, and be part of groups
- Making voice and video calls can be done easily
Better Than Or Different To Telegram
As with with my list of things that compared Telegram to WhatsApp, this is my own personal list, and you might have other things you feel are better in Signal than in Telegram.
Groups
Ok, first off, groups.
- Telegram allows for up to 200,000 members in a group, with Signal allowing for 1,000. Honestly, I feel like we are going from one extreme to another. I can see that 1,000 might not be enough for a large organisation, but 200,000 is WAY too many people for a group, at least IMHO
- As with Telegram, you can mute a group, but manage notifications when you are mentioned. Within the group, clicking on @ Mentions, then you can select from Always notify or don’t notify to get the kind of smart notifications you are looking for
- There doesn’t seem to be a way to mute all groups in one action, but you can mute notifications from groups on a group by group basis
- If you are using Telegram and are a group administrator, you can delete a message from a member of the group which deletes it for everyone. This cannot be done in Signal.
iPad App
This might be important for Apple fans. Apparently, there is no WhatsApp app for the iPad, but there is with Signal (and also Telegram).
Pin Chats
Chats can be pinned and unpinned in Telegram, and this feature is also available in Signal. Simply press and hold one of the chats, then click on the pin icon that appears at the top of the ribbon menu. The chat will then appear in a new Pinned section at the top of the list of chats
Last Seen Time & Online Status
One of the features I like about Telegram is the last seen time and online status settings. Signal does not appear to have either of these settings. You cannot see when someone was last seen, nor if they are online.
Access To Your Phone Number
With Telegram, I can chat with people and not need them to have or know my phone number. This is not an option with Signal.
Read Notifications
This is one area where Signal has the upper hand. It’s got two settings that Telegram does not have, and that’s to enable or disable read receipts and also enable or disable typing indicators. Disabling these means your recipients will not know if you have read their message, or if you are typing a message, but likewise, you will not know if your recipient is doing the same. I like this feature, shame Telegram doesn’t have it!
Folders
Chats can be moved in to folders with Telegram, but no such feature exists with Signal unfortunately!
Channels
With Signal, you can create a group, or start a chat with an individual contact. Channels are a great feature in Telegram, providing you with the ability to broadcast a message out to subscribers. So in this regard, Signal is the same as WhatsApp and you wouldn’t be losing anything if you switched.
Username
The username feature in Telegram gives you the ability to create a link you can share with others. This ties back in to the fact that your phone number does not need to be something you share with everyone you chat with over the messenger app. With Signal, you can add a photo and your first and last name, but there is no concept of a username that you can share as a link with people.
Secret Chats & Self Destructing Messages
A secret chat in Telegram allows you to create a chat where messages cannot be forwarded on to others. It also provides a self destructing message feature where you can set a specific period of time before a message will disappear from both people’s phones that are in the chat. With Signal, you don’t have secret chats, but instead you can turn disappearing messages on and set an amount of time where the messages will disappear. Messages can still be forwarded on to others even with the disappearing messages feature turned on in Signal.
Animated Stickers
Yeah, I know this one is pretty pointless in the grand scheme of it all, but I LOVE the animated stickers in Telegram. You don’t get this in Signal, but can of course send your own stickers and regular emojis…. it’s just NOT the same. 
Polls
Polls are a great feature in Telegram, really helpful if you are using a Group chat to manage events, or try and get people to make a decision about something. No polls feature exists in Signal at the moment.
Edit Sent Messages
In Telegram, you can edit messages after you’ve sent them. Currently this cannot be done in Signal.
Add To Home Screen
You cannot add a chat to your devices home screen using Signal, although you can do this with Telegram.
Comparison Table
To round this out, let’s look at all of the features I have reviewed in this post, and the one that looks at Telegram, and compare them against WhatsApp. If you are purely looking from a feature perspective, Telegram is hands down the winner. If you are a developer and interested from a code perspective, someone else will need to blog about that 
If you are concerned about privacy, it’s either Signal or Telegram in my opinion. With Signal not storing ANY of your data, it gets top marks there. Telegram’s features, combined with them only storing your Contact Info, Contacts and your User ID (should you create one), makes it the top contender for swapping out your message app.
| Feature | Signal | Telegram | |
| Group members | 256 | 1,000 | 200,000 |
| Group smart notifications |  |  | |
| Pinned messages to top of group chat | | | |
| Pinned chats | | | |
| Mute all groups by default | | | |
| Android app | | | |
| iPhone app | | | |
| iPad app | | | |
| Online status | | | |
| Last seen time | | | |
| Ability to hide phone number from message contacts | | | |
| Disable read notifications | | | |
| Folder structure for chats | | | |
| Channels for message broadcasts to subscribers | | | |
| Creating a username to share with others instead of your phone number | | | |
| Secret chats | | | |
| Self destructing messages | | | |
| Animated stickers in native app | | | |
| Polls in group chats | | | |
| Add chat to home screen of device | | | |
| Edit message after it's sent | | | |
| Delete message from group member as administrator | | | |
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There IS an option to mute all groups is telegram. Go to settings -> notifications and turn off notifications for groups. It’ll mute them all and you can also enabled or disable notifications when you get mentioned in groups or group admin pins a message.
Yes you are right, there is! That’s what the comparison table shows, and what it states in the details of the article.
It’s a great feature!
The major difference in my opinion is that Telegram has a fantastic multi device support that Signal do not – you are truly free to move your usage between devices which is a feature I wouldn’t be without.
Thanks for your comment Peder. Good to know! So are you for example, starting on an Android device, then maybe switching to an iPad, then going to a desktop?
Thank you so much, Megan. You are so fast and doing amazing things.
Thanks Necdet! I appreciate that!
I’ve been using telegram for years, I think 10 now.
It’s amazing
Thanks for the comment Flesz!
You forgot the biggest feature of Signal… The one nearly every person that likes Signal gets it for … end to end encryption.
End to end encryption is standard on Signal with all messages being sent this way, but not so for Telegram. Only secret messages on Telegram are sent end to end encrypted.
Privacy of the consumer in this regard is not very protected by Telegram, but that also means that it targets a more commercial market.
In this regard, Telegram is better suited for entities with large amounts of participants that need to communicate regularly in various forms, well not being particularly interested in privacy between those participants.
Signal by default is much better about privacy.
Thanks Pariah. Good information to share. This is not a technical article, so going into data encryption or other aspects of the code was never the intent. Thanks for sharing your insights!
The main disadvantage I thought Telegram had compared to Signal was lack of video calling. I now see it’s supported altho the latest I could find on it were about beta versions going live yet still no group video calling. Aside from that, I do agree the rest of the features might be a bit better than Signal. I’m going to download them both and play with them, anxious to dump WhatsApp and Messenger.
Thanks for the comment Michael, yes calls and video calls are available in Telegram for personal chats. I don’t see it yet for groups though. I still have all three on my phone… mainly so I could do the Signal review and comparison. Will be deleting WhatsApp before February 8th!
Feel signal is more personal than any other. I mean “Signal now is WhatsApp in its early days”.
Thanks Asif, good to have insight and opinions from others using Signal.
Signal is alot better for privacy
I totally agree. With Signal not storing ANY of your data, it gets top marks there. However, the purpose of this is to do a comparison so people can make up their own minds. If someone is using WhatsApp and continues to, privacy and data is not really one of their concerns.
Telegram “secret chats” implements end to end encryption, that is the default behavior in WhatsApp and Signal, but in Telegram you can do “secret chats” only on a user to user mode, so groups in Telegram are NOT encrypted end to end. So this is currently a disadvantage, not and advantage over WhatsApp or Signal, as posted.
Hi Fabio. I listed it in the comparison table that you CAN do the secret chats in Telegram, and discussed it in a section showing what was better than OR different to Signal. I am not a fan of this feature, I think it feels pretty shady from a user perspective, never mind from a technical angle. This article is not designed to give technical information and is truly just providing a list of the features and comparing the three apps, WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram.
Hi, I am new in telegram I saw good results and it’s nice app even if for small groups.
Kind regards
Marios
Thanks Marios. Yes, me too. Happy with it so far.
Can chat members interact instantly with one another during group chat like in whatsapp?
Hi Yinn, yes they can.
WhatsApp does show when someone is online.
As a matter of fact I prefer that signal doesn’t so I’m not expected to reply a message as soon as someone sends it or sees me online..
Ah, I think I just missed that one. Have adjusted the table to reflect that for WhatsApp. Thanks Will!
The main difference is that Telegram is owned by Russian ogligarks sending all your data to Putin and Signal is not. Did you research that part?
Surprisingly, that’s not what this article is about. If you have researched it, feel free to share!
Very informative thoughts fantastic piece of information just as good as Which magazine.
Thanks for your comment Jonny!
There are animated stickers in Signal. Also Telegram can not encrypt group chats which is default in Signal as well as encrypted one on one messages which have to be actively activated in Telegram. Also things like last seen online require more metadata to be collected, which is something Signal does not want to and Telegram and WhatsApp are doing a lot. So despite the features listed the article lacks a little bit talking about data security at that point.
Hi Kurisutian, thanks for the comment. You are absolutely correct, I didn’t talk about data security as that is not my area of knowledge or expertise. Instead, I linked to places where others can read articles that do help people understand that. I also mentioned that if you are concerned about privacy, it’s either Signal or Telegram in my opinion. With Signal not storing ANY of your data, it gets top marks there. Some users will continue on with WhatsApp, not caring at all about data security. For me, I am happy with Telegram and what they store compared with WhatsApp. Ideally, it would be nothing stored, just like Signal. I’d rather have the extra features that that little bit of data collection allows.
Hi I use both Telegram and whats app. But for my business activities I always use whatsapp. Now Iam not sure if Signal will give me same service as whatsapp or not.
The comparison table at the bottom of the post should hopefully help!
There are animated stickers in Signal. And apparently you can find and install the same stickers available in Telegram.
Awesome, good to know. Will adjust the comparison table to reflect this.