Highlights of the blogpost:
- Telegram 7.0 is not yet available for iOS, as Apple failed to review the update in time for Telegram’s 7th birthday (Telegram could have just waited a bit more tbh)
- for clients supporting the latest API layer available (layer 118), calls and video calls will use the new WebRTC-based VoIP library instead of libtgvoip (which is still embedded in the apps because of backward compatibility)
- video calls are e2e encrypted, of course
Small curiosity: the 3rd round of the voip contest ended on April 8th. This day probably marked the beginning of the works on the new VoIP library by whoever they hired - even though some people were already working on it. Regardless, it took ridiculously little time to bring it to production on all the official apps. I guess they skipped QA entirely lol
Small curiosity #2: screen sharing is also planned and will be released within 2020
Bonus: for its 7th birthday, Telegram tweeted this nice video with an overview of all its cool features (relevant though I give them a pass as it’s not trying to be some relatable twitter corp crap)
Yo you’re free to move here where I live and try to move my circles to Signal or Element or any other messaging platform that isn’t Facebook-owned (oh yeah and also maybe not funded by the US government ah-ehm totally not looking at you Moxie). Spoiler: you can’t, unless it’s Telegram
I am not supporting signal here… not at all… I actually think it has similar issues. and just because one is in the US and the other in Rusia does not make neither of them better, they both shit from diff holes… but both shit. I am supporting that security by obscurity does not work and will never work when you have to “trust” and give support to a corporation, is not like is a ONG/not-for-profit entity… is not… why should we trust them at their word? all I know signal allows the US and says the opposite and telegram helps russia and says the opposite… who can we know? the rest is just fan boy love not decent objective views. thats all Im saying… I will never recomend any closed blackblox to anyone. even if it came from freaking bakunin or durriti. LOL :)
I agree with you about the corporations thing, if it’s centralized then there’s at least a small level of trust to concede. I use Telegram for private communications because it’s the only place where I’ve been able to move people to. I use it for public communities and news feeds because it’s the most handy solution I’ve been able to find.
Anyway, it upsets me that people will shit on Telegram as soon as they hear its name, even if it’s in a community about Telegram. I perfectly acknowledge its flaws and when possible, I try to use something else - the more decentralized it is, the better. But as of now, I’ve been able to convince exactly zero people I know IRL to use Riot. I only use it for online communities and with people I’ve met on the internet. The only viable alternative to F.A.G.A.M.-owned spyware is Telegram. This is a community for people who use the service and I’m quite confident people here on Lemmy are aware that Telegram require some level of trust to be used, and that when possible, you should use or support more ethical alternatives such as Matrix/Riot. So okay thanks for your top-level comment, I’m not against criticism toward Telegram at all, but your comment doesn’t contribute to the discussion and just generates unnecessary friction and hostility.
yup, telegram is used extensively in western europe, and the problem(?) is that people like it because it’s a quality software and thus don’t want to switch from it…
Telegram is arguably the slickest messaging app out there, the UX is way better than any competitors’ and the desktop client is not some slow-ass electron app. Of course Telegram’s architecture is basically flawed because it defaults to its custom TLS-like encryption and is not e2e by default, but sometimes you have no choice when your circles are a bunch of tech-illiterate people who won’t move their ass off WhatsApp. It was a pain trying to move them on a platform with a way better UX (Telegram) - I can’t even start to imagine the massive amount of work I would have to do to try to move them on something not as friendly as WhatsApp. It would cost me hours of discussions and an incredible amount of work and research to find appealing and convincing arguments (plus a lot of effort in improving my oratory lol) to try to move them on something like Signal, Wire (which I do not trust as much as I did anymore, considering who owns it now), or (in my wettest dreams) something that uses Matrix.
It’s been 7 years and as far as we know, Telegram hasn’t acted maliciously and they seem to be driven by the right principles. We cannot trust them 100% but it’s way better than chatting on a closed-source, obfuscated, vulnerabilities-riddled app that is owned by Facebook and in which they poured 16 billions dollars plus years of investments.
Plus, I have to say that channels are a great tool in a lot of scenarios and the bot API is super easy and fun to use
totally agree!
I probably shouldn’t say or do this, but i’m actually beginning to trust them, which i shouldn’t do
let’s hope their intentions are actually honest and in the future they will make efforts to be more transparent and sustainable (rn it basically hinges on durov’s own accumulated wealth afaik)
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