With WhatsApp busy fixing some technical issues with Microsoft, its competitor Telegram, hoping to grab a slice of WhatsApp user base, has released its official app for Windows Phone.
Much like WhatsApp, Telegram Messenger is focused on delivering a secure messaging experience allowing users chat with their friends, along with some exclusive features.
Telegram Messenger Beta, originally Ngram, sports auto-self destruct feature and uses a fully encrypted chat system. The app also comes with Secret Chats feature for “end-to-end encryption,” in which not even a single message is logged on the servers.
“Telegram Messenger is an unofficial Telegram client with a focus on speed and security. It’s superfast, simple and free,” read the Telegram Messenger Beta page on Windows Phone Store.
“With Telegram, you can create group chats with up to 200 people so you can stay connected with everyone at once. Plus, you can share videos up to 1GB, send multiple photos from the web, and forward any media you receive in an instant. All your messages are in the cloud, so you can easily access them from any of your devices.”
Earlier this year, Telegram open sourced its platform and held a “pseudo-contest” for developers to built apps, in which Ngram stood out as the winner. The Ngram app was re-branded as the official Telegram app for Windows Phone last week.
Telegram couldn’t have asked for a better launch date, as WhatsApp is currently pulled from the Windows Phone Store, with no re-release date in sight.
This is not the first instance for Telegram to be benefited in the fall of WhatsApp, as the service nabbed over 5 million downloads in a single day following the privacy concerns of Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp. The figure was further boosted during a massive outage while WhatsApp was battling server issues.
