⚠️ WhatsApp’s “End-to-end encryption by default” claim is a giant consumer fraud.
📖 ~95% of private messages on WhatsApp end up in plain-text backups on Apple/Google servers — not E2E-encrypted. Backup encryption is optional, and few people enable it — let alone use strong passwords.
🔑Even if you encrypt your WhatsApp backups with a strong password, your messages still end up in unencrypted cloud backups — because 90%+ of the people you message haven’t done the same. Add the fact that WhatsApp stores and discloses who you chat with, and the picture is dire.
📤 Apple and Google disclose backed-up WhatsApp messages to third parties thousands of times per year. Meanwhile, Telegram hasn’t disclosed a single byte of users’ messages in its entire 12+ year history 💬
1,950,000
111,810
0
Pavel Durov
23 abr 2026, 20:59
🚨 Another proof that Telegram’s Secret Chats are the most secure way to communicate. The FBI https://9to5mac.com/2026/04/09/fbi-used-iphone-notification-data-to-retrieve-deleted-signal-messages/ to deleted messages in US gov-funded app Signal just by checking the notifications data. On Telegram, Secret Chats never show message content in push notifications, so, unlike Signal and other supposedly secure apps, we don’t have this risk.
🔛 Turning off notification previews won’t make you safe if you use those apps, because you never know whether the people you message have done the same. So Telegram’s Secret Chats design that forces the absence of notifications previews is the only solution. Obviously, this hurts usability, that’s why Telegram has two types of chats: Secret and Cloud.
🤹 In general, apps that are trying to provide both security and usability in ONE type of chat end up with ugly compromises — like WhatsApp leaking 95% of messages via unencrypted backups or Signal exposing messages through push notifications. The only way is to have two types of chats: 100% usable (Cloud) and 100% secure (Secret).
📆 12+ years passed since Telegram started the end-to-end encryption revolution by launching Secret Chats. Since then, dozens of apps followed suit and made bold claims about their encryption. But no app has been able to beat our Cloud Chats in usability and our Secret Chats in security. Their try to mix the two and get neither.
2,010,000
Pavel Durov
23 abr 2026, 20:59
🔐 We’ve upgraded Telegram’s anti-censorship protocol. Users in Russia are advised to update their apps to stay connected despite the ban.
⚠️ Some other advice: stock up on several VPNs/proxies in advance, help your friends and family do the same, and avoid using Russian apps while connected to a VPN (they may report your VPN to authorities for blocking).
💪 I’m glad to see most people are already doing this. Thanks to this Digital Resistance, Telegram usage in Russia has remained stable over the past week despite the full ban.
🔥 Keep it up. On our side, we’ll continue improving Telegram’s decentralized anti-censorship tech.
2,720,000
186,470
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Pavel Durov
23 abr 2026, 20:59
🚀 The TON blockchain just got upgraded and is now 10× faster.
⚡️ Block rate increased 6×.
⏱ Transactions are now instant, subsecond.
🪙 This was step 1 of 7 to Make TON Great Again (MTONGA).
Next step: cut the already low transaction fees by 6×. ✂️
2,340,000
68,630
0
Pavel Durov
23 abr 2026, 20:59
📷 Photo
🤥 WhatsApp’s “encryption” may be the biggest consumer fraud in history — deceiving billions of users. Despite its claims, it reads users’ messages and shares them with third parties. Telegram has never done this — and never will 🤝
2,160,000
136,290
Pavel Durov
23 abr 2026, 20:59
📷 Photo
🇪🇺 The EU is trying to justify its push for more surveillance (Chat Control) and censorship (DSA) via controlled NGOs and media. AI Forensics, a Soros-funded contractor to the European Commission, is telling us that Telegram is a PROBLEM because people can discuss content from OTHER social media in PRIVATE telegram groups (see the screenshot from state-owned France24 below).
📣 The crazy narrative of this "non-governmental" organization is distributed by globalist outlets (El País, Der Spiegel, Wired) and AFP (France’s “ITAR-TASS”), which is carbon-copied by the “free” French press (Le Parisien, 20 Minutes, Ouest-France, Le Figaro).
I doubt anyone still takes these organizations seriously 🤡 — most of them lost people's trust during the COVID era. But it’s important to call out all such attempts at public manipulation, because they are used to take away what's left of our freedoms. 🗽
2,030,000
Pavel Durov
23 abr 2026, 20:59
🎥 Video
Meet the most powerful polls tech in social media. Telegram's update packs a dozen new features:
🗳 Attach photos, videos & audios to options
💡 Let users suggest new options in active polls
🔐 Disable revoting for fixed results
😃 Shuffle options per user
⏱ Set time limits on polls
👀 Show who voted next to each option
📊 View results without voting
🔔 Get notified when someone votes
📂 View all polls in groups / channels
🫣 Hide results until the poll ends
🧠 Add correct answers and explanations for wrong picks
🔜 We're already working on more — 📊 polls stats, plus options to limit voting to channel subscribers or users from selected countries. Bot rigging of polls in large channels became a massive issue, and we're building the tools to stop it. 🛡
1,910,000
153,070
Pavel Durov
23 abr 2026, 20:59
🎥 Video
✨ Our new fully private AI Editor lets you translate and proofread your messages — or rewrite them in Tribal, Zen, Corp, Biblical, or Viking styles.
🎨 This month, anyone will be able to create & share their own styles.
🐣 A new platform inside Telegram is being born!
1,860,000
77,900
Pavel Durov
23 abr 2026, 20:59
🔄 Your massive monthly Telegram update is out.
🧠 100% private AI Editor for your outgoing messages.
🗳 The most powerful polls in any messenger (+12 new features).
🖼 Support for Live Photos & Motion Photos.
🤖 Ability for [AI] Bots to create [AI] Bots for users — in one tap.
📹 Demos: https://telegram.org/blog/ai-editor-mighty-polls-and-more
1,980,000
85,400
0
Pavel Durov
23 abr 2026, 20:59
😎 Telegram was banned in Russia — yet 65M Russians still use it daily via VPNs, with 50M+ sending messages every day. The government has spent years trying to ban VPNs too. Their blocking attempts just triggered a massive banking failure — cash briefly became the only payment method nationwide yesterday. 😂
🧊 Iran banned Telegram years ago, with a result similar to Russia. The government hoped for mass adoption of its surveillance messaging apps, but got mass adoption of VPNs instead. Now 50M members of the Digital Resistance in Iran are joined by 50M+ more in Russia. 😙
🤝 Welcome back to the Digital Resistance, my Russian brothers and sisters. The entire nation is now mobilized to bypass these absurd restrictions. Thousands are building VPNs and proxies. On our end, we’ll keep adapting — making Telegram’s traffic harder to detect and block. ✊
4,170,000
495,300
Pavel Durov
29 mar 2026, 13:22
🧐Despite some FUD, Telegram has no dependence on Russian capital. Our recent $1.7B bond offering included exactly zero Russian investors. Old bonds issued in 2021 have largely been repaid and pose no issue. 😌
In any case, bondholders are not shareholders and have no say over Telegram’s decisions. I am the sole shareholder. 😈
🤯 I was just told that I have over 100 biological kids. How is this possible for a guy who has never been married and prefers to live alone? 🤨 🔙 Fifteen years ago, a friend of mine approached me with a weird request. He said that he and his wife couldn’t…
🐣 It happened. Our decentralized confidential compute network, Cocoon, is live. The first AI requests from users are now being processed by Cocoon with 100% confidentiality. GPU owners are already earning TON. https://cocoon.org/ is up, with docs and the source code.
🤔 Centralized compute providers such as Amazon and Microsoft act as expensive intermediaries that drive up prices and reduce privacy. Cocoon solves both the economic and confidentiality issues associated with legacy AI compute providers.
🚀 Now we scale. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be onboarding more GPU supply and bringing in more developer demand to Cocoon. Telegram users can expect new AI-related features built on 100% confidentiality. Cocoon will bring control and privacy back where they belong — with users. 🤖
6,270,000
97,690
Pavel Durov
29 mar 2026, 13:22
📷 Photo
🥊 Great to see my gym buddy Petr Yan win the UFC title — with Gifts shining in the background 🥊
🎁 The UFC Strike Gifts auction on Telegram starts in 4 hours. Don’t miss it! https://t.me/auction 🥊
💪 https://t.me/khabib_nurmagomedov legendary papakhas — collectibles symbolizing Tradition, Freedom, and Respect — are going on auction on Telegram tomorrow at noon EST (9pm Dubai time).
🌟 As the 29–0 undefeated champion himself puts it:
“Some gifts carry more than value — they carry meaning ☝️”
4,700,000
145,384
Pavel Durov
29 mar 2026, 13:22
😋 We’re starting to test new Telegram features such as live-streaming in Stories and auctions for gifts.
🍸 Before we auction gifts from superstars and megacelebrities, we’re testing the auction mechanics with the exclusive 🎁 Telegram Plane gift.
🏆 It will be auctioned in 50 rounds, each distributing 20 Telegram Planes to the top 20 bidders. The first round will last 1 hour, while the remaining 49 rounds will last only 5 minutes each.
🔜 The auction starts in half an hour. Make sure you have the latest version of Telegram installed, otherwise you won’t be able to take part. Good luck! 🍀
4,210,000
73,482
0
Pavel Durov
29 mar 2026, 13:22
🎥 Video
A demo of how auctions for rare gifts work 🎈
4,570,000
84,449
0
Pavel Durov
23 mar 2026, 14:04
🎥 Video
🕷 Someone made a game about me escaping a French prison — and fighting off all sorts of shady characters along the way. https://t.me/TotalGlitchBot
Only on Telegram could independent developers pull this off. The Mini App platform gives them absolute freedom — and the results are wild.
🎃 Happy Halloween!
P. S. I had zero involvement or even knowledge about this before it launched. Respect to the creators!
5,340,000
171,454
Pavel Durov
2 mar 2026, 10:11
🇪🇺 Telegram sent this message to all its users in France regarding Chat Control. People must know the names of those who try to steal their freedoms:
Today, the European Union nearly banned your right to privacy. It was set to vote on a law that would force apps to scan every private message, turning everyone’s phone into a spying tool.
France led the push for this authoritarian law. Both former and current Interior Ministers, Bruno Retailleau and Laurent Nuñez, supported it. Last March, they declared that police should see French citizens’ private messages (). The Republicans and Macron’s Renaissance group voted for it.
Such measures are supposed to “fight crime”, but their real target is regular people. It wouldn’t stop criminals — they could just use VPNs or special websites to hide. Officials’ and police messages wouldn’t be scanned either, since the law conveniently exempts them from surveillance. Only YOU — ordinary citizens — would face the danger of your private messages and photos being compromised.
Today, we defended privacy: Germany’s sudden stand saved our rights. But freedoms are still threatened. While French leaders push for total access to private messages, the basic rights of French people — and all Europeans — remain in danger.
6,460,000
308,796
Pavel Durov
1 mar 2026, 08:54
🎥 Video
The new Telegram update is here — with 12 features added in one month:
💬 E2E Comments & Reactions in Calls
✍️ Notes for Contacts
🎂 Suggested Birthdays
🤖 Threads & Streaming for AI Bots
💡 Bugs & Suggestions Mini App
🎨 New Profile Styles
🎁 Improved Gift UI
🔗 On-chain NFTs on Profiles
🗑 Gift Signature Removal
💧 Liquid Glass Input Field & 🗂️ Tabs
All demos and details 👇
https://telegram.org/blog/comments-in-video-chats-threads-for-bots
6,860,000
218,268
Pavel Durov
23 feb 2026, 20:04
I’m turning 41, but I don’t feel like celebrating.
Our generation is running out of time to save the free Internet built for us by our fathers.
What was once the promise of the free exchange of information is being turned into the ultimate tool of control.
Once-free countries are introducing dystopian measures such as digital IDs (UK), online age checks (Australia), and mass scanning of private messages (EU).
Germany is persecuting anyone who dares to criticize officials on the Internet. The UK is imprisoning thousands for their tweets. France is criminally investigating tech leaders who defend freedom and privacy.
A dark, dystopian world is approaching fast — while we’re asleep. Our generation risks going down in history as the last one that had freedoms — and allowed them to be taken away.
We’ve been fed a lie.
We’ve been made to believe that the greatest fight of our generation is to destroy everything our forefathers left us: tradition, privacy, sovereignty, the free market, and free speech.
By betraying the legacy of our ancestors, we’ve set ourselves on a path toward self-destruction — moral, intellectual, economic, and ultimately biological.
So no, I’m not going to celebrate today. I’m running out of time. We are running out of time.
10,700,000
831,366
Pavel Durov
12 feb 2026, 09:01
🇲🇩 About a year ago, while I was stuck in Paris, the French intelligence services reached out to me through an intermediary, asking me to help the Moldovan government censor certain Telegram channels ahead of the presidential elections in Moldova.
After reviewing the channels flagged by French (and Moldovan) authorities, we identified a few that clearly violated our rules and removed them. The intermediary then informed me that, in exchange for this cooperation, French intelligence would “say good things” about me to the judge who had ordered my arrest in August last year.
This was unacceptable on several levels. If the agency did in fact approach the judge — it constituted an attempt to interfere in the judicial process. If it did not, and merely claimed to have done so, then it was exploiting my legal situation in France to influence political developments in Eastern Europe — a pattern we have also 🇷🇴
Shortly thereafter, the Telegram team received a second list of so-called “problematic” Moldovan channels. Unlike the first, nearly all of these channels were legitimate and fully compliant with our rules. Their only commonality was that they voiced political positions disliked by the French and Moldovan governments.
We refused to act on this request.
Telegram is committed to freedom of speech and will not remove content for political reasons. I will continue to expose every attempt to pressure Telegram into censoring our platform. Stay tuned. 🤝
8,130,000
Pavel Durov
10 feb 2026, 07:44
https://t.me/charliekirk’s death is an assault on free speech. He fought for open debate, and enemies of truth hated him for it.
Free expression is under attack worldwide. Once free speech is lost, every other freedom soon follows. We must continue Charlie’s mission to defend it ✉️
7,580,000
146,800
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Pavel Durov
10 feb 2026, 07:44
Growth in the last 30 days 😺
7,750,000
264,100
0
Pavel Durov
30 ene 2026, 15:14
🏎 NFTs are back — reimagined. 18 Telegram gifts bought for just $57 a few months ago were traded for a $350,000 car. 🚗
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414
0
Pavel Durov
6 dic 2025, 16:24
➕ One year ago, the French police detained me for 4 days because some people I’d never heard of used Telegram to coordinate crimes. Arresting a CEO of a major platform over the actions of its users was not only unprecedented — it was legally and logically absurd.
A year later, the ‘criminal investigation’ against me is still struggling to find anything that I or Telegram did wrong. Our moderation practices align with industry standards, and Telegram has always responded to every legally binding request from France.
Ironically, I was arrested due to the French police’s own mistake: before August 2024, they ignored French and EU laws and hadn’t sent any of their queries to Telegram via the required legal process. They could have learned the correct procedure simply by googling it or asking.
One year after this strange arrest, I still have to return to France every 14 days, with no appeal date in sight. Sadly, the only outcome of my arrest so far has been massive damage to France’s image as a free country. 🛠
✊ We’ll keep fighting — and we will win 😎
12,500,000
462
Pavel Durov
6 dic 2025, 16:24
👨🏫 A month ago, my father — a leading expert in Ancient Roman literature — turned 80. I asked what advice I should pass to the next generation. He gave me 3:
👨💻 1. Lead by example. People — especially kids — follow what you do, not what you say. Watching my father work tirelessly on numerous books and scientific papers showed me and my brother the meaning of dedication and inspired us to work hard too.
💖 2. Focus on the positive. Growing up in post-war Leningrad, my father learned to control emotions to be a positive force for his family, colleagues and society. He taught me to frame thoughts in ways that bring the most good, even in hard times.
🫡 3. Prioritize conscience. Studying and translating thinkers from Julius Caesar to Seneca, my father saw that morals outlast talent. Moral compass, unlike intelligence or creativity, is the ultimate human quality that will not lose value even in the age of AI.
