Doesn't Signal have mostly the same functionality as Telegram? Except for groups where only the admin can post which are more like Newsletter subscriptions, both apps have 1-to-1 and group chats, no? Telegram just has a slicker interface, bots, and lots and lots of useless nonsense with stickers and stuff.
Discussion
Telegram groups do not have end-to-end encryption, so you can join a group by clicking on a group link, similar to a forum. Signal groups are end-to-end encrypted, which conflicts with the forum concept.
Got it! Good point. We need Signal more. Forums should be sites like Stackoverflow that can be indexed by search engines. They should not be locked behind walled gardens.
Perhaps because mobile phone screens are much smaller than computer screens, discussions that originally took place on web forums have moved to Telegram, which has a chat interface, especially its groups with thousands of members. This is just my personal opinion.
Telegram has no group encryption that means you can host giant groups on them which are harder on other platforms. I think groups with for example 50k subscribers are better public posts but it seems to attract people...