Telegram Messenger: What is it?

Posted on by Swapnil Jha

Hi Guys,

Today we are discussing about the Telegram Messenger, an instant message carrier brought to you by Pavel Durov, who also brought VK.

What is Telegram?

Telegram is an instant messaging system mainly focussed on privacy and multi-platform availability. Telegram clients exist for both mobile (Android, iOS, Windows Phone) and desktop systems (Windows, OS X, Linux).

Telegram is run by a German nonprofit organization backed by entrepreneur and philanthropist Pavel Durov. Its client code is open-source software, while its server-side code is currently proprietary.

In short, Telegram is super fast, simple and way more secure than any of the messaging apps out there.

Features –

  • Connect from most remote locations with even the connections.
  • Coordinate groups of up to 20,000 members.
  • Synchronize your chats across all your devices.
  • Send documents of any type and size.
  • Encrypt personal & secret messages.
  • Destruct your messages with a timer.
  • Store your media in the cloud.
  • Build your own tools and bots on their API.

Why use Telegram when we have Whatsapp?

You might be thinking that why should one even bother about any other messaging app when one can use WhatsApp, following is the list of differences which make Telegram better than any other messaging app out there including WhatsApp.

  • It is cloud-based, which lets you access your messages from multiple devices.
  • It is open source.
  • It is secure. Not only the messages are encrypted but Telegram also offers Secret chat, in which after a set interval of time, the messages are deleted from all the devices.
  • It is distributed. Its servers are spread worldwide to enhance speed and security.
  • It enables you to share unlimited high-resolution photos, videos, and files of any type up to sizes of 1.5 GB.
  • It has Bots. For e.g. Add @ImageBot in your contacts, whenever you message it something like /get Ferrari, it would reply with an image of Ferrari. Telegram supports many different kinds of bots for different tasks. You can even make a bot for yourself if you want to.
  • It supports @replies, mentions and #hashtags. No this is nothing complex. It makes Group Chatting easier. For e.g., if I want to reply to person A in a group of 100 people. I can type @A followed by my message, and only A will be notified.
  • It is free and will stay free forever.

About the Developers

You can follow Telegram on Twitter, for ongoing news about it. Or check out its FAQ section.

Telegram is supported by Pavel and Nikolai Durov.

Pavel Durov is known as the Mark Zuckerberg of Russia because his VK userbase outnumbered Facebook users in own own country that is Russia. Pavel supports Telegram financially and ideologically, while Nikolai’s input is technological. To make Telegram possible, Nikolai developed a unique custom data protocol, which is open, secure and optimized for work with multiple data-centres. As a result, Telegram combines security, reliability and speed on any network.

Supported Platforms with Download links

Telegram is available on a number of different platforms and Operating Systems as listed below.

Screenshots Gallery

Android –

iPhone –

Desktop –

That’s all folks.

Image source – telegraph.co.uk (Featured image) Swapnil’s Yuphoria, iPhone 5 and ASUS K50C (for screenshots).
Author – Swapnil Jha
Co-Author – Shubham Rajput

Swapnil Jha

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