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Unfortunately, those are not real alternatives to Telegram. Telegram is meant to be a WhatsApp replacement.

WhatsApp thrives because in many places, SMS costs are prohibitive (so TextSecure is not an option). In addition, it requires no registration and doesn't rely on external services (so ChatSecure is also out of the question).

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Textsecure for Android uses wifi/reg data and SMS if you want. Signal, the version for iOS with combined Redphone + TextSecure will be data too. Soon they will also allow email identity instead of only phone numbers. WhatsApp requires just as much registration as TS, and you have to allow WhatsApp full permissions to mine your entire device from reading SMS to /sdcard.

Then use WhatsApp!

Telegram allows you to use the same account on multiple devices, which is the main reason why I use it. It's also independent of Facebook, which many people don't trust.

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