It's not really "better" it just has an opt in social media feature (these channels)... There's no recommendation algorithm, it's not pushing anything, you have to explicitly seek these channels out.
It would be like subscribing to a Lemmy community except there's not even a "front page" feed, you have to explicitly search for it. Nobody accidentally is joining "Nazis R Us" or being subjected to their messaging.
Now is it helping these groups organize/spread information to their members... Maybe?
Telegram has a pretty relaxed moderation platform that basically is "don't call for violence, don't do illegal things, and we're generally okay with it"
Its better because:
It can sustain big public groups (upto 200k peoples),
channels with unlimited subscribers,
unlimited cloud storage (files upto 4gb, synced across devices),
powerful bots,
web apps,
native crypto support,
you can do pretty much anything within the app (literally a superapp),
heaven for pirates,
stickers, video calls, live streams, etc.
unlimited devices could be signed up for one account,
messages sync across devices,
free with minimal ads, premium to get more features,
completely run by users support and ad platform, no external entity involved.
secret chats for end 2 end encryption chats and much more.
Telegram is more geared towards group communication. It has a much better group chat experience and a channel feature that lets you disseminate information in a single place without a discussion taking place. It is better at group communications in that it is more feature-rich.
If you’re doing is 1:1 messaging or have some small group chats with 2-3 friends you wouldn’t get much out of it over Signal.
Telegram banned me literally seconds after I registered, even before I could finish setting up my profile. Not once but twice weth two different numbers. Without any kinds of explanations as to why. I've contacted support multiple times but literally zero replies. People literally do drug businesses there, host pirated stuff and CSAM, that's somehow ok and me just registering is where they draw the line?
Can't say that about Signal. So as far as I'm concerned, yeah Signal is way better.
I’ve been a heavy Telegram user since around 2016. I’d say the main thing I love about it is their focus on user experience. Everything is always super fast, looks nice and feels smooth. They’re often pushing new features which is always cool to see.
Plus their iOS/macOS apps look native and aren’t web-based, so it’s a great replacement for iMessage.
At this point I’ve converted my whole family and friends and they all love it too!
Awesome stickers with very good custom sticker support.
You can use a nickname to chat, you don't need to share your GSM number with anyone which was an incredibly stupid idea in the first place. On that account , better privacy than Signal or ShitsApp.
You can use simultaneously on multiple web AND mobile devices.
You don't lose your chat history when you login from another mobile device like in ShitsApp.
Stores your media server-side. So you always have your full chat with all the media in it. Of course this requires care about what you share with other.
Forwarding messages between chats has a lot of flexibility.
Message editing. Which ShitsApp finally copied. 🤣
Constantly improved. They are always adding more features.
It's like a shadier Discord/WhatsApp mashup. Founded by Russians now based in Cyprus, iirc, and funded (in part) by the Kremlin. So I guess don't write anything you don't want the siloviki to read.
It works, on every OS, seamlessly, for instant messaging (which is all I use it for).
I use multiple devices throughout the day, and all messages show up instantly on every device, while supporting file transfers, etc.
It just works.
Signal is like using SMS. The UI sucks. And no sync between devices. I appreciate what they're trying to do (which is why sync between devices is challenging), but I can't get anyone to use it anymore since they dropped SMS support.
They are there in smaller channels as well - my wife has about 2,5k and I see ad posts from time to time. The format does not look that invasive though, just a few lines to scroll past.
very short ads without any external links. Only visible to users who havent bought telegram premium and only one ad per channel that too only if you scroll down