Brokerages, advisory firms prefer Telegram to WhatsApp, here's why

Representative image | Source: Pixabay

Signal and Telegram messaging apps are seeing a surge in demand as the new privacy policy of WhatsApp triggers concerns over data but several brokerages and advisory firms had moved to Telegram much before the terms of services were revised. They say Telegram offers a wider reach and better admin control.

"I had moved from WhatsApp to Telegram initially because it could not handle more than 256 members, did not have a broadcasting channel and did not have admin controls that are required to control messages during a live market where only admins may prefer to message rather than the entire group," said Debi Prasad Baral, Co-founder, Financepeer.

Also read: Signal, Telegram see demand spike as new WhatsApp terms stir debate

"The performance is far superior but the most important thing is getting connected to even lakhs of users in a single group while the appropriate content restriction for non-admins is the winner here compared to WhatsApp," he said.

Baral said Telegram had these features from the beginning that helped to grow the community. It also has options for linking a discussion group to a broadcast channel, which is very useful for brand building.

"In terms of privacy, it is way better than WhatsApp where even you can hide your phone number which helps in unnecessary reach of strangers when the group is big," Baral said.

He runs his channel under than name 'TheInvisibleTrader', the same name as YouTube. Telegram is flooded with many such channels.

Alok Jain, Founder, WeekendInvesting, said he had migrated to Telegram as it offered him easier admin capabilities.

"Many years ago I had a WhatsApp group and when I came to know about Telegram, I shifted to that to interact with my audience due to its much stabler desktop application, easier admin and group capabilities, bots to conduct an auction and potential to integrate it with external application due to its open platform nature," Jain said.

A lot of advisory firms had created groups on Telegram and Signal, he said. "The biggest advantage these platforms have compared to WhatsApp is that a new user coming in is able to scroll up into the history of the broadcast and the knowledge that may have been shared earlier in comparison to in WhatsApp where you start on a clean slate for a new user," Jain said.

The likes of Elon Musk and Anand Mahindra have come out in favour of Signal, which saw a massive spike in registration after the world’s richest man and Tesla CEO recommended it to users.

Mahindra, the chairman of Mahindra Group, is the latest to sign up for the Signal messaging app, which is being seen as a secure alternative to the Facebook-owned WhatsApp.