Tiktok cements it’s #1 status
Holy shit, three of the top five downloaded apps are within the Facebook ecosystem (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram).
And further down you have Messenger and WhatsApp Business, also from Facebook (I refuse to call them Meta).
That’s really awful.
SHEIN on #19 is one of the worst apps for the planet due to slave labor and cheap clothes which are meant to be trashed instead of washed.
I logged into telegram today and found that all my data had been deleted because I hadn’t used it in 6 months. Like I get why that feature might be desirable in some circumstances but for me, I’m not using end-to-end encryption because I’m sharing state secrets that need to self destruct upon opening - I just don’t want the middlemen.
I’ve been looking into alternatives like Matrix/Element, XMPP etc - it sounds like Element might be easier to get non-techy friends to adopt but it, from my understanding, has a fairly power hungry mobile app.
You can set the self destruct option to 1 year in Telegram. Matrix or Signal isn’t as safe as people think they are. One has history of having ties to Mossad and other with CIA. Signal requires phone number and both have huge privacy issues with meta data. XMPP and Session seems better option.
Sources :
Why not Signal? And the Five Eyes
Matrix and Israeli Intelligence Amdocs
For good reason. Out of all the messenger apps I’ve tried - open source, decentralised, or stuff like whatsapp - Telegram is THE best one imo. Fast as hell, great UI/UX, lots of customisation, nice features, and good bot support.
I know some people dislike Telegram here, but among centralised apps their philosophy and track record is pretty decent imo