Alternatives

Best Telegram alternatives

Q: Isn't Telegram already encrypted? Why would I leave?

Telegram is encrypted between you and its servers, but that's not the same as end-to-end encryption. Only Secret Chats — which you have to start manually, one device at a time — are end-to-end encrypted so that Telegram can't read them. Every normal cloud chat, group, and channel is readable by Telegram's servers, which is why its updated privacy policy lets it disclose your IP address and phone number to authorities for criminal cases. If you want messages no provider can read, you need an app that is end-to-end encrypted by default, like Signal, SimpleX, Threema, or RVNT.

Q: Which Telegram alternative is closest to 'just works like Telegram'?

Signal is the easiest switch for most people: it registers with your phone number, auto-discovers contacts, does group chats, voice/video calls, and disappearing messages, and it's polished and widely used — the practical difference is that everything is end-to-end encrypted by default and there's no giant public-channel ecosystem. If avoiding a phone number matters more to you than familiarity, Threema (paid, no number) or SimpleX (no account at all) are stronger on privacy but have smaller networks and a steeper adjustment.

A fast, feature-rich cloud messenger with a huge user base — but chats are end-to-end encrypted only when you manually start a "Secret Chat," so by default Telegram itself can read your messages. Here are the more private options, ranked honestly — with the tradeoffs named.

Why people leave Telegram

Your everyday chats aren't end-to-end encrypted. Telegram only applies end-to-end encryption inside opt-in, one-device "Secret Chats." Every normal cloud chat — including all group chats and channels — is encrypted only between you and Telegram's servers, which means Telegram itself can technically read, store, and (under legal order) hand over your message content. Most people never realize their conversations aren't private from Telegram. (Telegram — End-to-End Encryption, Secret Chats (official docs))
Telegram now shares IP addresses and phone numbers with law enforcement far more readily. After CEO Pavel Durov was arrested and indicted in France in August 2024, Telegram quietly rewrote its privacy policy (September 2024) to disclose a suspect's IP address and phone number for any criminal case that violates its Terms of Service — not just terrorism, as before. Reported disclosures to authorities then jumped from a handful of cases to hundreds per quarter. (Help Net Security — Telegram will share IP addresses, phone numbers of criminal suspects)
Telegram's encryption is a custom, in-house design that cryptographers have long criticized. Its MTProto protocol was built by Telegram rather than adopting the widely vetted Signal Protocol, and academic analyses have flagged questionable design choices. Combined with no post-quantum protection, this makes Telegram a weaker choice than apps built on independently studied encryption. (Arrest and indictment of Pavel Durov — Wikipedia (context on moderation/encryption scrutiny))
Tied to your phone number and a single company. Telegram requires a phone number to sign up and runs entirely on its own centralized servers, so your account, contacts, and cloud-stored chat history all live with one operator — a single point of trust, failure, and legal pressure. (Telegram FAQ (account requires a phone number; cloud chats stored on Telegram servers))

The alternatives, ranked

1 Signal The default safe choice for most people

The gold-standard end-to-end-encrypted messenger — open-source, independently studied, now post-quantum, and run by a nonprofit that has proven in court it holds almost no data, though it still ties your account to a phone number and runs on central servers.
Compare with RVNT →
2 SimpleX Chat Maximum metadata privacy with no account at all

The first messaging network with no user identifiers of any kind — not even random numbers — using disposable message queues instead of accounts, with post-quantum encryption and Trail of Bits audits, at the cost of a less mainstream experience.
Compare with RVNT →
3 RVNT Privacy maximalists who want fully serverless P2P

A fully peer-to-peer, hybrid post-quantum messenger with no phone number, sealed-sender metadata protection and Tor-by-default routing — the most ambitious privacy design here, but young, pre-release, and not yet independently audited.
Get RVNT →
4 Threema People who'll pay for a no-phone-number Swiss app

A paid, Swiss, open-source messenger that needs no phone number and encrypts everything by default with independent audits, though it runs on central servers and isn't yet post-quantum.
Compare with RVNT →
5 Session Hiding your IP and identity without a phone number

A no-phone-number, onion-routed messenger that hides your IP and metadata by default — strong on anonymity, but its currently-shipping protocol still lacks forward secrecy (a fix is in development).
Compare with RVNT →

Switching from Telegram: what to expect

What you keep: the core experience translates well. Every alternative here does one-to-one and group messaging, media, and voice, and most do voice/video calls. If you switch to Signal or WhatsApp, onboarding is nearly identical to Telegram — register with a phone number and your contacts who already use the app appear automatically.

What you lose: Telegram's standout features are the hardest to replicate. Massive public channels and supergroups (up to 200,000 members), bots, and a searchable username-based public directory are a social-media layer that privacy-first messengers deliberately don't offer — that same openness is why Telegram stores your data on its servers. You'll also lose Telegram's seamless multi-device cloud sync of full chat history: because real end-to-end encryption keeps keys on your devices, apps like Signal, SimpleX, and RVNT sync less freely and may not carry your old history to a new phone. And there is no automated chat import — Telegram cloud chats can't be exported into another app's encrypted store, so you start conversations fresh.

What you gain: the thing Telegram never gave you by default — encryption your provider genuinely cannot read. Choices like SimpleX, Session, Threema, and RVNT also drop the phone-number requirement, and SimpleX and RVNT remove the central server entirely. The honest trade-off: smaller networks, fewer power-user features, and (for RVNT specifically) less maturity than Telegram's polished, battle-tested app.

Frequently asked questions

Isn't Telegram already encrypted? Why would I leave?

Telegram is encrypted *between you and its servers*, but that's not the same as end-to-end encryption. Only **Secret Chats** — which you have to start manually, one device at a time — are end-to-end encrypted so that Telegram can't read them. Every normal cloud chat, group, and channel is readable by Telegram's servers, which is why its updated privacy policy lets it disclose your IP address and phone number to authorities for criminal cases. If you want messages no provider can read, you need an app that is end-to-end encrypted **by default**, like [Signal](/vs/signal), [SimpleX](/vs/simplex), [Threema](/vs/threema), or [RVNT](/vs/rvnt).

Which Telegram alternative is closest to 'just works like Telegram'?

**[Signal](/vs/signal)** is the easiest switch for most people: it registers with your phone number, auto-discovers contacts, does group chats, voice/video calls, and disappearing messages, and it's polished and widely used — the practical difference is that everything is end-to-end encrypted by default and there's no giant public-channel ecosystem. If avoiding a phone number matters more to you than familiarity, **[Threema](/vs/threema)** (paid, no number) or **[SimpleX](/vs/simplex)** (no account at all) are stronger on privacy but have smaller networks and a steeper adjustment.