Johannesburg - As news started making the rounds about the updated WhatsApp privacy policy, users around the world found themselves being caught between a rock and a hard place.
WhatsApp users have until the 8th of February to accept WhatsApp new terms and conditions or risk losing access to the messaging service.
Since then, many users have started weighing their options and are now migrating to other messaging apps like Telegram.
IOL TECH details a comparison of the features offered by WhatsApp and Telegram.
When it comes to features, the Facebook-owned app offers pretty much all the things you may require from an instant messaging app. The platform supports text and voice messages, share images, documents, user locations, voice and video calls, both for individual users and groups. However, the group video calls, are restricted to only 8 users at a time.
WhatsApp's client application called WhatsApp Web runs both on mobile devices and desktop computers. This is possible as long as the user's mobile device remains connected to the Internet while they use the desktop app.
The app also supports group chats of up to 256 members and can also broadcast messages to multiple contacts at the same time.
WhatsApp offer Status feature also known as Stories. Although this feature is popular in most social network platforms, it is sadly not available on Telegram. This feature is a fan favourite as users get to express their thoughts through texts, video and pictures to their loved ones. Users have an option to choose who can and can not view their Statuses on the platform.
WhatsApp also offers to share PDF’s, documents, spreadsheets, slideshows and more, without using an email or other file sharing apps. However, the file size is limited up to 100 MB. And for photos, videos, and audio files, the limit is 16 MB.
WhatsApp Live Location allow users to share your real-time location for a specific amount of time with the participants of an individual or group chat. You can control whether and how long to share your live location.
WhatsApp offers seamless backup and restore functionality through cloud storage. It also supports dark mode.
When it comes to features, Telegram takes the cake as it has more features than WhatsApp. Both messaging apps have similar features such as text and voice messages, sharing of images, documents, user locations, voice and video calls.
Telegram also has a client application that can run both on mobile devices and desktop computers. Just like WhatsApp, a user's mobile device must remain connected to the Internet while they use the desktop app.
Telegram takes the upper hand as it supports group chats with up to 200 000 members. Users also get multiple group-specific features such as bots, polls, quizzes, hashtags and a lot more which can make group experiences a lot more fun.
The app also has a unique feature that self-destructs messages. Users also get support for editing sent messages, along with features like message scheduling, sharing uncompressed media, and themes.
Users can share an unlimited number of images, documents, and files on Telegram as the size limit is a whopping 2 GB per file.
As of April 2020, Telegram reached 400 million monthly active users and WhatsApp had over 20 billion monthly active users.
With the new privacy policy set in place, it sure feels like the numbers are going to change and Telegram will bank in more numbers for its monthly users, as more and more users are leaving WhatsApp.
IOL TECH