Telegram starts to look like a super app, echoing WeChat

The worst part is, they're partnering with Tencent.

Telegram is dead.

Telegram is a suprisingly good app.

• Open source clients
• Decent Linux client on the laptop (whatsapp desktop is just terrible)
• It can be downloaded without Google's appstore.

I wish other apps were half as good as Telegram.

The shitty forced "stories" did me question seriously this once wonderful app. If I'd want to look at crappy TikTok-like shorts from other people, I'd be on TikTok.

Telegram has open source their client code. Not their server code. It's even on f Droid.

I was under impression that Google Play and Apple App Store don't allow apps that can do practically everything (super apps). Is it really allowed? If a completely new company submit a chat app that somehow includes taxy hailing, food delivery, nfc/qr wallet and micro-loan features all at once instead of adding those features gradually in future updates, would Apple and Google accept the app?

Everyone complaining about both telegram and signal here should, idk, just start dead dropping handwritten notes to people inside of dead rats, like the true privacy experts.

Privacy is important, yes. But if all of my friends use telegram, I'm going to use it too. Not only that, I'm going to be happy about it, because the telegram app is 1000x better than pretty much any other messaging app.

braces for angry downvotes

It does have a ton of functions tbh. I use it to access bots and keep notes. Even repositories for apps - Revanced Extended uses it for e.g. !

Uninstalled and moved to signal. But no one I know is on signal 🤡

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Telegram, the popular messenger with 800 million monthly active users worldwide, is inching closer to adopting an ecosystem strategy that is reminiscent of WeChat’s super app approach.

To build out this super app platform, Telegram relies on a network of infrastructure partners both from the established tech world and the crypto space.

WeChat has pioneered the mini app model in China and now powers millions of them serving functions from payments, food delivery, e-commerce, ride-hailing, to driver’s license renewal, just to name a few.

The developers would also need to learn the programming languages of blockchain apps, which might actually be an easier barrier to overcome than the process of understanding the economic incentives that facilitate decentralized applications.

Importantly, payment functionality played a critical role in WeChat’s early rise as it instilled a habit among users to make daily transactions through the chat app.

It will be fascinating to witness what lessons Telegram and TON take from WeChat and how a mini app platform with a decentralized twist unfolds.

The original article contains 678 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 75%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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Telegram is rarely used in my country anyway.

Please use decentralized chat apps and not Telegram