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WhatsApp will always have security issues, according to the founder of rival Telegram
Jul 03, 2025
Last week, it was reported that hackers hadmanaged to install spyware on a large number of smartphonesthanks to a previously unrevealed vulnerability inWhatsApp(it has since released an update to patch the issue). Now, the founder of a rival messaging service,Telegram, claims that WhatsApp users should never expect it to be secure.
In a post on theTelegraph blogging site, Telegram founder Pavel Durov claimed that WhatsApp’s security issues stem in part from the decision by its parent companyFacebooknot to release the source code to the app. Durov claims that WhatsApp goes even further and tries to blur the app’s binaries. This means software security researchers cannot take a detailed look at them to discover privacy issues.
In addition, Durov speculates that Facebook and WhatsApp may allow government agencies to access backdoors to those apps to combat cyber criminals. However, he adds those backdoors could be used by the very groups that they were put in place to fight against.
Even when WhatsAppadded support for end-to-end encryptionto all of the app’s communications in 2016, Durov stated those messages lose their encrypted status when they are backed up. He added:
He believes that simply updating the app won’t make it safer to use.
Is Telegram more secure than WhatsApp?
By contrast, Durov says that Telegram is safer to use because it is open source software. He also claims that the company has not disclosed any data to third-party organizations, and it has not had any major security flaw or leak since it launched. In 2018, Russiaofficially banned Telegrambecause its encrypted messages could not be read by the government (although users could still access it via aVPN). Later,Iran banned the use of Telegramfor the same reasons. Durov explains that new features that are added to Telegram are later copied and put into WhatsApp “down to the tiniest details.”
Read next:RCS vs WhatsApp: Thoughts from a long-time WhatsApp user
Even with these developments, Durov admits WhatsApp and Facebook have a huge marketing machine to promote their apps. Telegram has no such marketing department, and Durov says it relies on word-of-mouth recommendations to help spread the word about the app.
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