There is a lot of hype over encrypted chat programs.
Telegram's encryption is not end-to-end unless you opt into "Secret Chats"[1] and many claim their crypto is not secure[2,3] as they rolled their own[4].
The latest Google chat app Allo also backed away from defaulting to end-to-end encryption for all messages as it lessens the quality of their auto-assistant[5].
The Axolotl protocol (developed by Moxie and Trevor[6]) is available in Signal and was later adopted by WhatsApp. Signal has far fewer features than other chat applications, and people aren't clamoring much about it; I would guess because many people place features > crypto.
Wire (wire.com) uses this protocol as well[7].
WhatsApp being part of Facebook has already called into question their handling of privacy[8], the feature they were originally advertising as their main strength.
And in case @m0xie complains that we should call it the "Signal Protocol":
No one will call it that as long as you claim that Signal is trademarked, and threaten legal action against projects using that name.
The LibreSignal issue, where you behaved worse than a kindergarten child (and I know, I volunteered to work some weeks in a kindergarten a few years ago) is still in memory for most people.
Given that it's not multiplatform it's kind of irrelevant. It's not a replacement for any of the others. I mean, yay for better encryption, but it's not going to help anyone on Whatsapp today.
It isn't about securely sharing highly sensitive material, but enabling verifiable privacy of typical communications. For example (hypothetically) me discussing cancer with a family member, or financial information, or (in countries where there is government oversight) organizing protests.
If not using a secure end-to-end encryption method such as chat, what do you recommend?
Email providers such as ProtonMail provide the same but in the form of email. Telephone calls are not secure, and neither are text messages.
For the things I post on Telegram I don't care about crypto but rather about a good desktop client, features months ahead of Whatsapp, nice niche communities, bots (including the hn bot which is really nice to see all things that have been voted above a configurable threshold during the day.)
Now that I think of it a lot of what I use it for is as a RSS and twitter replacement: subscribing to channels and groups, occasionally posting harmless stuff.
Wire[1] is also an excellent option. Unlike Open Whisper Systems they wont hang you from a tree for building a third party app. Signal wont work without Gapps or Google Play Services on your Android phone and Google Chrome for desktop.
Signal is pseudo-open-source but will not allow you to use it except via the closed-source google play services, so I still wouldn't have confidence in it.
And wherefrom can you get Signal except for the Google Play store? I was looking for it a while ago to install on my phone but only found two other projects which were threatened by moxie and then shut down.
If you've used Telegram for a while you will notice that in practice no one uses secret chats because these chats don't sync between devices. Your "non-secret" chats are readable by Pavel and anyone he wishes to share them with. I guess it's fine if you trust Pavel's good intentions. I don't[1].
I expect nothing less from HN.