Planning to change your messaging app? Here's what you need to know

Whatsapp is one of the biggest messaging apps on the planet with over two billion users Though Facebook bought out WhatsApp in 2014 until recently no one ever thought about the negative consequences This is because WhatsApp was always seen as a separate entity However the recent popup on the app broke that image and the threat of account deletion made a lot of users angry This has led to the mass migration trend that we are seeing right nowWhatsAppSo what has changed with WhatsApp Is it going to share all our chats with Facebook Is our data at threat hereThe simple answer is not much has changed WhatsApp chats are endtoend encrypted which means no one can read your chat or hear your calls Unread chats get deleted from WhatsApp servers after a short amount of time WhatsApp doesnrsquot share your contacts with Facebook eitherThe data being collected instead has to do with activity logs connection logs and location data The new policy has a lot to do with business accounts and their interactions If you shop from businesses using their WhatsApp store that data will be shared with FacebookThat said Facebook doesnrsquot have the best track record when it comes to protecting user data and many users have opted not to trust their subsidiary eitherIf you want to stay on WhatsApp there is nothing new to worry about This is especially true if you have decided to keep your Facebook account and you share every bit of your life there That is a lot more dangerous than the chats you are having on WhatsAppWhat are the alternativesAs far as chat programmes go there are many but for right now there are two at the forefront Telegram and Signal So letrsquos talk about themTelegramTelegram has some of the same trappings that WhatsApp does starting with the fact that it is a commercial business Second unlike WhatsApp the chats are not encrypted by default at the userrsquos end the encryption happens on Telegramrsquos servers Secret chats are the only place where you get endtoend encryption They donrsquot collect a lot of data either other than contact information and your contacts They have also never shared any data with thirdparties However this is a commercial enterprise so they could change their policy at any time Whatrsquos to say that Zuckerburg or some other company wonrsquot open up its wallet to gobble this app as wellWhile it lacks in security it shines in terms of features You can have huge groups of 200000 You can share files up to 15GB in size It has group features like bots polls quizzes and hashtags It outshines WhatsApp in many waysSignalSignal is the underdog here but unlike Telegram it is packed with security features It uses endtoend encryption and the keys are stored on your phone It doesnrsquot store any data on you and this includes metadata logs contacts location and even people you have connected with Your chats donrsquot get backed up automatically either you can choose to back them up at your convenience and at a location you feel is secure They also have selfdestructing messages which disappear after a certain time limit Not to mention Edward Snowden and Elon Musk both love itSignal is a nonprofit and it makes its money through donations So there are no commercial ambitions there Where Signal lacks is in integrated features It is relatively simplelooking You canrsquot just add friends without their approval There is no integrated payments You canrsquot conduct polls or make groups over 1000ConclusionIn reality most people may run all three programmes Owing to where their groups are going there are some that have shifted to Signal and some to Telegram while a lot have stayed on in WhatsApp So at the very least I think people are going to have two if not all three However the incident with WhatsApp has left a lot of people bitter so I feel a lot of the nonessential chats will happen on WhatsApp For bigger groups Telegram makes sense and with smaller groups like family and friends Signal is the better choice Ideally if you are worried about privacy you might want to keep a closer watch on your Facebook rather than WhatsApp account