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Signal vs. Session vs. Telegram: Which Messenger Actually Protects You in 2025?
4 min readAug 25, 2025
If you’re an activist, journalist, or just very online and privacy-conscious, you’ve probably asked this question: “Which messaging app can I actually trust?”
In a world where your metadata tells “everything about somebody’s life” (thanks for that cheerful reminder, former CIA director Michael Hayden), choosing the right app isn’t just about UX: it’s about survival.
Welcome to the ultimate showdown between Signal, Session, and Telegram.
🛡️ Signal: The People’s Champion
Signal remains the darling of privacy advocates and apparently, the CIA (they literally train employees on it). Even senior Trump administration officials used it for military planning discussions. Whether that validates Signal’s security or raises red flags depends on your perspective.
The Good:
- End-to-end encryption by default for everything
- Open source and run by a nonprofit
- Bulletproof Signal Protocol (trusted enough that even WhatsApp adopted it)
- Fresh privacy features: From 2024 onward, you can establish usernames and shield your phone number from unknown users
The Reality Check:
- Phone number still mandatory for signup (but now hideable from others)
- Hemorrhaging $50 million per year, which…
