https://api.telegram.com/botTOKEN/sendMessage?id=YOUR_ID&message="your servers are on fire"
Only thing I could see is being able to switch it out for other services easier.
Truly the best group-chat platform I have used. It works extremely fast, and feels more polished and focused than whatsapp.
Whatsapp has too much going on, the fact that they store images/videos on your phone, and when you switch to different client or a different device your chat history does not follow with you. (I know you can "backup" and then "import" chats, but I mean come on.. thats a lot of work, not to mention you miss out on messages sent in between the switch)
And the most impressive Telegram? The search! Oh man the search... I have no idea how Telegram can index and search hundreds of thousands of messages INSTANTLY and take me back to a conversation I had over a year ago without so much as a delay.
Pavel, CEO of Telegram must be burning through money, but I really do hope they last.
Too bad the network effect is a thing, and also their approach to crypto might put you off.
It doesn't, anymore than whatsapp. Whatsapp says they have end-end encryption. Has anyone verified it independently? They say they use Signal's tech. Has anybody verified that the app doesn't just take screenshots of the screen and send them to facebook for data mining? When your app is closed source, all claims about security and encryption are meaningless, unless some solid auditing is done.
Signal tech is open source, can be checked and has been checked. I am pretty sure that if Whatsapp was lying about using the Signal encryption libraries, word would have leaked out of Whatsapp by now. On top of that, I would trust Moxie 100 times more than I would of the owner of Telegram.
Plus, the idea that Whatsapp is taking screen shots and sending it to Facebook is pretty silly. It would be really simple for them to have the messages copied; one going to true receiver and one going to the Facebook servers. There is no need for elaborate spying by Whatsapp, it would be really simple for them to spy on you if they wanted to.
* I am not calling the owner of Telegram dishonest, but in the Moxie vs Pavel Durov debate, I am going with Moxie.
[0]: my threat model sees Facebook and snooping kids as a bigger risk to me than NSA or FSB. It also says that if those guys come after me I've lost anyway.
That is not true, closed source does not mean you can't read the source code, last year (and i bet is still possible to do it today) i decompiled the apk into java source code, i remember i made it to confirm the telegram url block[1]. But the point is, if its possible to read the client source code, it should be possible to assure at least some level of security.
And yes, i always recommend whatsapp instead of telegram for family members because telegram doesn't have default e2e (i feel bad everytime i have to say this).
edit->for clarification, obviously i prefer to use a full open source end-to-end encrypted messenger
[1]http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/09/09/whatsapp-is-blocking...
http://telegramgeeks.com/2016/02/telegram-only-shows-us-the-...
Really? Building and deploying a bot made in an arbitrary language is less onerous than registering for a Gmail account to send mail reports through?
Perhaps it's just the author's sense of humour, but this didn't strike me as helpful at all. Notifications can be handy for some things, email for other things. Depends on the person. But it's not hard to set up an email account. That's partly why it's still around.
My motivation is a little bit different. I made this because Telegram has great Android Auto support, and also has an easy to use Bots API, so I can convert non-Android-Auto-compatible notifications into Android Auto notifications. I explained my motivation in detail in a blog post. [2]
[1] https://github.com/fishy/notifbot
[2] https://wang.yuxuan.org/blog/item/2017/03/smartthings-myq-an...
I want to make a thing that will forward my SMSs to a webpage so I can read them online and I want to be able to start conversation, reply to conversations, etc. I want it to be open source and free.
I'm not really interested in making it, I just want it.