Telegram

Zift Advisory

Telegram Messenger is a messaging app that is easy to use, free, doesn’t have advertisements, and allows for extremely secure messaging. This app can be found in both the App Store and the Google Play Store. It is rated for users 17 years and older and does not feature in-app purchases or advertisements. Telegram is not safe for kids.

About Telegram

What is Telegram?

Telegram Messenger is a messaging app that is easy to use, free, doesn’t have advertisements, and allows for extremely secure messaging.

This app can be found in both the App Store and the Google Play Store. It is rated for users 17 years and older and does not feature in-app purchases or advertisements.

The Telegram app is first and foremost an instant messaging app. Through that, users are able to message anyone over a Wi-Fi or cellular connection and can use fun emojis and GIFs built into the app. Telegram also has built-in photo and video editing tools and the ability to make and edit your own chat stickers within the app.

Users are also able to make phone calls through the app for free. In addition that that, Telegram touts “secret chats” in which messages from either user can be programmed to self-destruct after being read. This self-destruct feature will hide or get rid of messages, photos, videos, and even files that are sent.

The Telegram app also allows users to group chat with their friends and are constantly working to add new features such as polls and questions for your friends. Telegram is free to use and features no advertisements and promises that it always will be.

Is Telegram safe for my kids?

Telegram is not safe for kids. Parents should be aware that with this app, self-destructing secret messages are possible.

Telegram uses a person's real phone number and allows them to message internationally without fees. The user must sign up with their phone number, and they have the option to add a profile picture and real name, in addition to their location.

There is no way for users to find new strangers to interact with while using this app so that is one thing that parents will not need to worry about. The secret chat feature, on the other hand, is something that parents will likely not want their child using.

Anyone using secret and self-destructing chat, especially kids or teenagers, may be doing so in order to hide something. Whether they are hiding who they are speaking to, the subject of conversation of the media that is being sent, kids should not have this much privacy.

There are many other messaging apps that kids can be using that allows them to have privacy but not so much that they are able to hide everything they are doing.