Telegram has quickly become one of the most popular messaging apps. Its core feature is privacy which it ensures by its end-to-end encryption. You may have heard this a lot, but all it means is that it doesn't allow users outside a conversation to access the conversation.

In other words, it prevents eavesdroppers. Apart from privacy, there are a lot of reasons why you should switch to Telegram. Let's take a look at some of them.

1. Telegram Uses the Cloud

Telegram stores all your messages and photos in a cloud. What this means is that you can save all your stuff in a secure server and access it from any connected device. This makes it a great platform for doing more than just chatting.

2. Enhanced Privacy With Usernames

Another great feature of Telegram is that it enhances its users' privacy by allowing people to share usernames rather than phone numbers. This will allow you to choose the type of information you want to display and gives you the option of choosing how you would like for people to contact you.

If you do get unwanted messages, however, you can always block someone on Telegram.

3. Allows You to Edit Messages

"Hi sweaty, where are we going for dinner tonight?"

I know you meant "sweetie," you know you meant "sweetie," and your partner knows you meant "sweetie." But it's still embarrassing!

Wouldn't it be great if you could quickly fix your typo before anyone saw it? It would even prevent rage messages sent to your boss or partner after an argument.

Telegram offers this exact feature.

To edit a message in Telegram, press and hold on the message you want to change. After a few seconds, a context menu will appear. Click on the Edit button, and you'll be able to tweak to your heart's content.

The other person will see an on-screen indicator; they know you changed something. But there's no way for them to see the original. Note however that you can only edit messages that were sent in the last 48 hours. There are ways to know if someone has read your message on Telegram by looking at the checkmarks.

4. Secret Chats

Smartphones are a hotbed of private information. And perhaps the most revealing part of the phone is your message history.

Telegram combats the issue with its Secret Chat feature.

There are lots of reasons why you might want to chat in secret. Perhaps you're planning a surprise party for a family member, and you don't want them to see a revealing notification on your phone accidentally. Maybe you're involved in a romantic liaison that you don't want other people to find out about. Or perhaps you're just a privacy fanatic.

Like some other messaging services, Telegram's secret chats use end-to-end encryption. This means that they are not recorded in any way on Telegram's servers, and self-destruct off your phone after an allotted period of time. The forwarding option is also disabled.

Of course, if you're hype-conscious about your security, you could use this method of chatting for all your conversations.

5. Send Large Files

On Telegram, you can send files up to 2GB in size. That covers almost everything you would realistically want to send from one mobile device to another.

6. Watch YouTube Videos While Chatting

If your friends are anything like mine, you'll receive several "must-watch" YouTube videos per day. Very few of them transpire to be anything close to must-watch.

Imagine a world where you can start watching the video to see if it's entertaining whilst simultaneously berating your friend for wasting your time with another video of a dog running into a glass door.

Well, on Telegram you can do it easily. Tap on the thumbnail of the video link to start playing the video. To continue chatting while the video is playing, click on the Picture-in-Picture icon. With Picture-in-Picture mode on, you can multitask. The window can be moved and resized for your convenience.

7. More Members in a Group

Telegram allows you to have groups of up to 200,000 members. They support replies, mentions, and hashtags that help to maintain and organize the communication in large communities. You can appoint admins and join public groups.

8. "Last Seen" Exceptions

We shudder to think how many arguments have been started by the last seen feature on chat platforms. If you don't want everyone knowing when you were last online, Telegram provides a much more nuanced approach. You can be selective about who will know the last time you were online.

To choose who can see your status, open Telegram and go to Settings > Privacy and Security > Last Seen & Online. Under Who can see my Last Seen time, choose My Contacts or Nobody.

Below Add exceptions, you can tap on Always Share With and Never Share With to make your selections accordingly.

9. Add Stickers to Photos

Yes, we know it's annoying to see a pig's nose and a dog's ears pinned onto so many photos these days, but some people seem to love it.

If adding stickers to photos floats your boat, Telegram excels. It offers a fun photo editing feature that's similar to Snapchat. And you can even make your own Telegram stickers.

10. Hide Telegram Media

Some of the most annoying features of other chat apps is how quickly they clog up your phone's gallery app. What should be a fun roll of family snaps and pictures of beautiful scenery is packed with repetitive memes and stupid jokes.

While you can change your app settings to stop media from downloading automatically, Telegram allows you to choose to download all the media you receive. This way, you'll never overlook something important, but you can prevent the app from adding it to your phone's gallery app.

Go to Settings > Data and Storage > Save to Gallery to optimize your auto-download settings.

Which Are Your Favorite Telegram Features?

These ten features conspire to put Telegram in a class of its own at the head of the instant messaging apps. None of its competitors come close in terms of either features or ease-of-use.