Telegram has recently launched calls.
@TALKS“So what?! Nothing new here! Viber/Whatsup/skype all have calls!” – would say
people who have not been using telegram.
I will say that Telegram has just made another step in communication revolution. They have taken a basic thing like chat and made it perfect with the latest technology available. I have been converting people to telegram for over 2 years now. My Whatsup nickname is “moved to telegram messenger” and I have all of the people from my circle to join telegram. I am writing this not to brag, I did it this for selfish reasons – my own privacy and comfort.
Channels. I have to admit; when I first saw news about channels in telegram, I was skeptical that this is going to be useful. Now 2 years later telegram channels is my favorite source of uncensored information. Uncensored is a major adjective of telegram channels. Durov has told that he has not closed a single government opposition channel and is not planning to. The effect of this decision was very evident when last week when we had a series antigovernment of strikes all over Russia with 15-30 thousand people marching in center Moscow. I have been visiting my parents in downtown of Moscow (place has a terrible internet connection) when a message from @varlamov channel came up. Two major sources of news in Russia: TV and Yandex.News were
absolutely quite.
Let’s go back to calls. I’ve tested it as soon as a could and it is awesome! I remember
when calls were launched in whatsapp – Great idea, but terrible execution.
Unlike most of the IT companies of our generation Telegram decided to use AI to
actually make quality of product better instead of “studying” users. You’ve
probably heard statement: data is new oil. Unfortunately, most of the people do
not care about the consequence of their private info being studied by big
organizations or governments. If you think that I am exaggerating I suggest you
to read about company called Oxford Analytics, some say that they had huge
impart in getting Brexit and Trump elected. If government and big corporations learn
everything about you, it puts you in huge danger of their manipulation. So it’s
up to you weather you want to feed the beast.
Now let’s talk about Durov. Favorite “song” of people who are far from technology world - “Ah! this guy! He is just a copycat! Copied FB and made VK, copied Whatsapp and made Telegram. He has no ideas of his own”, would tell they while holding their
new IPhone 7 in their hand. It does not matter to them that VK was faster and a
lot more user-friendly comparing to FB. Comparing Telegram to Whatsap is like
comparing horseback carriage to Tesla- they use technologies of different
generations. Is it really that bad to copy someone’s idea? According to “Prince of Silicon Valley”(Steve Jobs)- NO, IT’s perfectly fine. Jobs did it many times and he is
considered by many as the greatest visionary of technology world, he’s
idolized, but didn’t he copy ideas and technology from Xerox to make world’s
first personal computer with GUI as we know it. The mp3 player, Ipad,
Smartphone – these products existed before Apple decided to make their amazing
versions. And I don’t hate Apple, I love their products, but people should agree once and for all - IDEAS MEAN NOTHING WITHOUT POLISHED EXECUTION.
For me personally, I’ll continue being a big supporter of Durov and Co if they stick to their promises, but I do realize that Telegram is free and to keep it running Durov’s got to spend lots of money.
It will be very interesting what they’ll do next. Will they build a payment system which will help them to make profit? They have embraced AI, maybe they will also decide to build new payment system with Blockchain technology. Whatever it is I hope that they don't decide to sell this project.