According to the disastrous announcement changes to its privacy policy, WhatsApp is losing the trust of millions of users who are now looking for a new encrypted messaging platform. Telegram claims it added 100 million new users this month alone, and it hopes its new ability to transfer WhatsApp chat histories will speed up the transition.
On Thursday, Telegram launched one Action-history tool that allows users to import their chats from WhatsApp, Line and KakaoTalk. According to the company, videos and documents are also transferred to Telegram. Here’s how you do it on WhatsApp:
To move a chat from WhatsApp on iOS, open it Contact Info or Group info page in WhatsApp, tap Export chatand then choose Telegram from the Share menu.
On Android, open a WhatsApp chat, tap ⋮ > More> Export chatand then choose Telegram from the Share menu
The company said chats will be added to Telegram on the day they are imported, but will still include the original timestamps for reference. It also added a few feature tweaks to the audio player, some new greeting stickers, updated animations on Android, and an ability to report fake accounts.
When it comes to encrypted messages, trust and security are paramount. Signal has had the best reputation for those qualities for quite some time now, but some users are put off by its lack of features. But that is changing quickly. Signal started unroll updates to its Android and iOS apps today, adding chat backgrounds, an “About” field for profiles, animated stickers and more efficient use of data. The effort to make Signal more friendly to new users has caused some controversy at the small nonprofit, as some employees fear that complicating the app could lead to the same moderation issues that plague social media networks. But there is still every reason to believe that Signal’s best private messages app out there.
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WhatsApp uses Signal’s encryption protocol, but it collects more metadata about users and, Well, it is owned by Facebook. After announcing some changes to the privacy policy that would only affect the sharing of data as it applies to messaging with a company, people panicked. And the company whined since then it has been the victim of misinformation and misunderstanding. You could say that users overreact, but Facebook has lost the privilege of getting the benefit of the doubt. The founders of WhatsApp left the company warning that Facebook was violating its mission to protect users’ privacy, and one of them, Brian Acton, went to Signal.
Despite all that, WhatsApp still felt comfortable enough to wear to announce the addition of face, thumbprint and eye scan on Thursday. It promised users that biometric data will be processed on the device and it cannot collect that information.
If you’re tired of trusting Facebook to keep its promises, use Signal.