Even though several social media apps have emerged in the last couple of years, Facebook is still the most popular social media platform, with approximately 2.9 billion monthly users.
Facebook has, over time, enjoyed widespread popularity and penetration due to its availability, custom-made features, and ease of use. However, there’s a growing concern that many people are abandoning Facebook for the most future-centric Telegram.
Telegram has been hailed as a private and secure instant messaging app, while Facebook has been accused of privacy violations, painting Telegram as anti-Facebook.
Telegram became anti-Facebook after emphasizing its private and secure platform when Facebook faced multiple accusations of prioritizing ad revenue over its users’ privacy. This prompted many users to move to Telegram. Telegram also improved its data security and privacy support by adding features like self-destructing messages. Overall, Telegram’s high-quality data and privacy protection model has been seen as a contrast to Facebook’s policies, making it anti-Facebook.
This article compares Telegram and Facebook features. Read on to learn more about Telegram becoming anti-Facebook.
Telegram Features vs. Facebook Features
As noted earlier, Telegram is famous for its user privacy and protection approach. Here are some of Telegram’s highlights compared to similar Facebook features.
End-to-End Encryption
One of the outstanding Telegram features is end-to-end encrypted messages. This means messages are only visible to the sender and recipient.
End-to-end encrypted messages are popular because people want to protect their privacy and anonymity when messaging. Encryption protects your information from interception or surveillance because it is unreadable to other parties.
Facebook later introduced end-to-end encryption for its messages and instant messaging apps. However, stories of data leakage and surveillance have persisted, making people doubt the security of their systems and opt for Telegram instead.
No Ads
Another feature painting Telegram as anti-Facebook is its no ads policy. Telegram strictly prohibits the display of ads on their platform. Facebook, on the contrary, has optimized its features to profit advertisers.
Additionally, most of their ads are said to be geared toward the advertiser’s target audience. This means they must store their user’s data and sell or share it with companies for ads.
Telegram has always capitalized on protecting user privacy by not storing any data. Additionally, all messages and account-related information are deleted from their servers when you delete your account.
Many Facebook users who feel the survey of their app usage and sell their data moved to Telegram for more secure browsing and communication.
Channels, Groups, and Bots
Another reason Telegram became anti-Facebook is through users’ access to features like channels, groups, and bots that are unavailable on Facebook. Groups and channels can also be private or public, allowing users to choose their degree of exposure.
Bots are artificial intelligence tools users link to their Telegram channels. Telegram users link bots to their channels to access specific information, automate tasks and customize their user experience. This puts Telegram’s features ahead of Facebook’s while prioritizing user privacy and data security.
Secret Chats
Telegram has another layer of message protection where users can enable secret chats. Both secret chats and usual messages have end-to-end encryption. However, regular chat messages can be recovered as they are stored in the server, while secret chats are not recoverable.
Telegram users cannot forward the contents of a secret chat. This level of privacy gives Telegram users assurance that their information is private. Even though Facebook has a secret chat feature across its apps, Telegram’s privacy model still ranks higher than theirs.
Additionally, the multiple incidents and accusations of data breaches have not inspired confidence in their users regarding the security of these features, even when there’s no data storage.
Unique Features
Telegram has also positioned itself as a user-friendly platform with unique features that meet the users’ needs. An excellent example is editing and replacing photos after sending them. Telegram allows users to edit photos, for example, by adjusting contrast, saturation, highlights, and shadows even after sending it.
Other unique Telegram features include an option to delete messages from other people. If you messaged someone and don’t want them to keep or refer to the conversation in the future, you can delete your and their messages. This function isn’t available on Facebook.
Telegram also lets you send silent and scheduled messages. The platform has a built-in translator that enables you to translate messages to other languages. The built-in translator saves you time and ensures the privacy of your data, as you don’t have to copy the message and paste it into an online translator. Everything happens within the app.
Summary
Telegram became anti-Facebook when Facebook users started migrating from the app to Telegram due to its advanced data privacy and security models. Facebook has had several accusations of data breaches and surveillance.
Telegram has taken advantage of these accusations by upgrading its data protection features through end-to-end encryption, no ads policy, secret chats, and other features.
