WhatsApp and Telegram: the good fight on Twitter!

There is really a fight against each other's instant-messaging apps in the recent days! Discover what's happening between WhatsApp and Telegram on Twitter.

You can maybe assume that I don't like Telegram, but you're wrong. For example I use it daily like WhatsApp, and WABetaInfo has also a Telegram channel where we post announcements for new articles and new WhatsApp beta for iOS updates on TestFlight. The fact that WABetaInfo posts news about WhatsApp does not mean we hate Telegram, but we try to be as objective as possible.
The argument is always the same: the Terms of Service (and WABetaInfo has recently published a new page that collects all information you should know about the terms). The official account of Telegram on Twitter has published a new tweet, where we can see WhatsApp as new recycle bin. Telegram often publishes similar tweets against WhatsApp, that are well accepted from their followers, but WhatsApp has unexpectedly tweeted against Telegram for the first time!

Telegram admin: "...and what people dont know is we’re not end-to-end encrypted by default" pic.twitter.com/yac1iSMc27

— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) May 14, 2021

The response from Telegram was not long in coming, indicating that the WhatsApp platform is not safe because Apple and Google can see user messages from the backup:

.@WhatsApp Our users know how things work, and have the open source apps to PROVE it. You... talk to the screenshot 🤚 it says you’re lying. pic.twitter.com/aSUotBGWh0

— Telegram Messenger (@telegram) May 15, 2021

If you follow WABetaInfo since a long time, you know this is not true. As noted by the developer alex193a, Apple and Google cannot see the content of our messages because the database is encrypted:

Actually, Apple and Google would need the key to decrypt the .crypt12 database in order to access the conversations 😅
Furthermore, users will soon be able to encrypt the .crypt12 database with their own password, adding an additional level of security. https://t.co/fHDQJ3t4Rl

— Alessandro Paluzzi (@alex193a) May 15, 2021

And he is right: it's needed a key to decrypt a .crypt12 or .crypt14 database, generated from WhatsApp locally. WhatsApp indicates that your backups aren't end-to-end encrypted because media are excluded from this type of encryption (seen that your media files aren't stored in a database). If you follow WABetaInfo since a long time, you know that WhatsApp is already working to bring end-to-end encrypted backups for all users having WhatsApp for Android and iOS.

@WhatsApp is working on end-to-end encrypted backups, on WhatsApp for Android and iOS. 🙌🏼 https://t.co/Gb7G4oiiO6 pic.twitter.com/zRDLJcvEcS

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) May 15, 2021

When a backup is encrypted using end-to-end, WhatsApp protects it using your own password, that's not shared with WhatsApp, Facebook, Apple and Google. This feature, available in a future update, will protect your backup from unauthorized access.
This sort of competition is fine, so we named this article as "the good fight on Twitter". Telegram is known as one of the best instant messaging app because it has several innovative features, and this competition might convince WhatsApp to bring the most requested features on their app.
This is not the first time that Telegram publishes a tweet against WhatsApp. We'll see what they will tweet about when WhatsApp releases end-to-end encrypted backups.

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