{"id":337172,"date":"2017-03-30T20:01:37","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T12:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/?p=1470835"},"modified":"2017-03-30T20:01:37","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T12:01:37","slug":"telegram-introduces-voice-calls-touting-end-to-end-encryption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/asmawisham\/telegram-introduces-voice-calls-touting-end-to-end-encryption\/","title":{"rendered":"Telegram introduces voice calls, touting end-to-end encryption"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Telegram is the latest messaging app to get a major new feature, but unlike Facebook Messenger<\/a>, WhatsApp<\/a>, Viber<\/a>, Hike<\/a> and countless\u00a0others, it isn\u2019t cribbing from Snapchat. That\u2019s because Telegram is introducing voice calls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Admittedly the company is a little late to the audio calling party, but that is likely because of its focus on security, and in particular end-to-end encryption, which Telegram said also extents to cover audio calls.<\/p>\n

Telegram was founded by Pavel Durov, a Russian entrepreneur who rose to fame as the founder of\u00a0VKontakte, Russia\u2019s Facebook. Since being ousted as CEO in 2014, he has lived a nomadic existence\u00a0and focused his\u00a0work on developing Telegram, which gained global attention as an alternative to WhatsApp<\/a> after it was acquired by Facebook in 2014<\/a>. WhatsApp now has over one billion users, making it the most popular chat app on the planet \u2014 when we last heard from Telegram in February 2016<\/a>, it had clocked an lower (but nonetheless) impressive 100 million monthly users with 350,000 new users joining per day.<\/p>\n

Those users will soon gain access to Telegram Calls, which the company said is rolling out to those in Europe first before coming to the rest of the world soon after.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

These days, most messaging apps have audio\u00a0and video calling, so how is Telegram aiming to stand out?<\/p>\n

Call quality is one focus.<\/p>\n

The company said it is using artificial intelligence to increase quality on an ongoing basis. Telegram said its AI uses various\u00a0call information, such as network speed, ping times, packet loss percentage, to optimize each call and learn for next time. That, it said, can improve the quality of calls as more time is spent talking via the feature.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, there are some useful granular control options that allow users to choose a \u201clow data\u201d call \u2014 saving on a\u00a0data plan at the expense of poorer call quality \u2014 while the app lets users limit things\u00a0so that only people in their contacts can call\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the encryption. Telegram said the framework for its \u2018Secret Chat\u2019 feature has been adapted for this new introduction<\/p>\n

\u201cTelegram Calls are built upon the time-tested end-to-end encryption of Telegram\u2019s Secret Chats. The key verification UI we came up with in 2013 to protect against man-in-the-middle attacks served well for Telegram (and for other apps that adopted it), but for Calls we needed something easier.\u00a0That\u2018s why we\u2019ve improved the key exchange mechanism,\u201d it said in a blog post.<\/p>\n

In practical terms, that means that two\u00a0people making a call over Telegram will be able to compare four emojis as a key exchange to ensure that their call is encrypted. That\u2019s a more fun take on\u00a0random pairing words or long passcodes on other secure services such as\u00a0Signal.<\/p>\n

Telegram posted more details on the security behind the feature in a\u00a0Q&A here<\/a>. That\u2019ll doubtless be of interest to many in the security community who have been vocal with their criticism of\u00a0Telegram\u2019s cryptography.<\/p>\n

In 2015, mobile security firm Zimperium concluded<\/a> that Telegram\u2019s system \u201cwill not stop sophisticated hackers from reading your messages.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTelegram is error prone, has wonky homebrew encryption, leaks voluminous metadata, steals the address book, and is now known as a terrorist hangout. I couldn\u2019t possibly think of a worse combination for a safe messenger,\u201d high-profile figure The Grugq<\/a>\u00a0wrote in a blog post<\/a>\u00a0later that year.<\/p>\n

Those opinions are particularly of interest since Telegram has become a popular app among ISIS, according to media reports<\/a>. Telegram itself has booted ISIS-related content from its service, it did so after the Paris attacks in 2015<\/a>\u00a0when it learned that its public broadcast feature had been used to spread propaganda. It also made it easier for users to report inappropriate material, but it, and other apps, continue to come under pressure from politicians who perceive that their encryption is aiding enemies.<\/p>\n

Just this week, UK\u00a0Home Secretary Amber Rudd singled\u00a0out<\/a>\u00a0WhatsApp, which introduced end-to-end encryption as default<\/a> for its conversations last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure that organisations like WhatsApp, and there are plenty of others like that, don\u2019t provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other,\u201d she told BBC journalist Andrew Marr in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be that people would steam open envelopes or just listen in on phones when they wanted to find out what people were doing, legally, through warranty.\u00a0But on this situation we need to make sure that our intelligence services have the ability to get into situations like encrypted WhatsApp,\u201d Rudd added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\" Telegram is the latest messaging app to get a major new feature, but unlike Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, Hike and countless\u00a0others, it isn’t cribbing from Snapchat. That’s because Telegram is introducing voice calls. Admittedly the company is a little late to the audio calling party, but that is likely because of its focus on security, and in particular end-to-end… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n

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