How to encrypt telegram

How to create a secret chat on Telegram and turn on end-to-end encryption

Home How To How to create a secret chat on Telegram and turn on end-to-end encryption

While Telegram has better privacy features in place as compared to WhatsApp, the end-to-end encryption is not a default option and needs to be turned on. There is also a way to create a secret chat on the app.

With the whole privacy and user data security debate raging thanks to WhatApp's new privacy policy, many users have picked either Telegram or Signal to move to for messages instead. Now, both Telegram and Signal do come with better privacy features than WhatsApp and both apps also collect lesser user data as compared to the Facebook-owned app.

We've already told you why you might want to opt for Signal, today we are going to tell you how to turn on end-to-end encryption for Telegram and how to start a secret chat on it.

Also Read: Top 6 reasons to pick Signal if you want to want to quit WhatsApp

For starters, end-to-end encryption (e2e) is not a default feature in Telegram. Cloud chats, what Telegram calls its standard chats, are not end-to-end encrypted. So if you don't turn e2e on, Telegram has access to metadata (who you wrote to, how often, when etc) and also the content of these chats. Telegram has said that it does not use this data for advertising but you never know when that can change.

How to create a secret chat in Telegram

Telegram does have end-to-end encryption, you just need to enable it. Telegram calls with end-to-end encryption turned on are called Secret chats.

- To create a secret chat open the profile of the person you want to start the chat with.

- Click on the icon with the three dots just below the person's profile photo.

- Select “Start Secret Chat”.

This opens a chat where end-to-end encryption is applied to messages, you will see a notification mentioning that appear in the chat window at the start.

You can also set the time after which messages in this secret chat will be deleted by tapping or clicking the clock icon in the message input box.

The automatic deletion of messages doesn't prevent your chat partner from taking screenshots, but if they do, you will be notified about it in the chat.

There is one exception here though, if the other person is using the macOS app you won't get a notification of a screenshot.

Telegram allows multiple secret chats with the same person and also Group chats cannot be secret.

How to know if a chat is end-to-end encrypted?

You will need to check for the padlock icon.

Since Telegram chats can be either cloud (normal chats) or secret, it is important to know which type you are using. On Telegram end-to-end encrypted chats look almost identical to regular ones. So to confirm which kind you're in, look for a padlock icon next to the name or phone number of your chat partner. If it's there, the chat is secret.

If not, then end-to-end encryption is off, in which case you should create a new chat.

You can also tap or click your chat partner's icon, and if end-to-end encryption is enabled, the words Encryption Key will appear at the bottom of the window that opens.

Important things to note

Secret chats disappear when you log out of or delete the Telegram app.

Secret chats are available in Telegram's iOS, Android, and macOS apps. The Web version and Windows app do not support secret chats as they cannot ensure secure storage of chats on the device.

Normal chats on Telegram are not end-to-end encrypted.

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First Published Date: 22 Jan, 17:16 IST

Tags: telegram signal whatsapp

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How to Enable End-to-End Encryption in Telegram Chats for Totally Private Conversations « Smartphones :: Gadget Hacks

By Justin Meyers
8/14/17 4:54 PM
6/17/19 6:59 AM
Calling & Texting
Telegram 101

Telegram routinely boasts about its secure messaging for truly private conversations between two parties. However, default cloud chats in Telegram are only encrypted between client and server, not client and client, which means you have to be a little proactive in making sure your private conversations on Telegram are really private.

Other security-minded messaging platforms such as Signal Private Messenger, which utilizes the already established Signal Protocol, use end-to-end encryption for all conversations, not just some of them. Even WhatsApp, which Telegram claims is less secure than its service, adopted the Signal Protocol completely for messaging in 2016. These E2E chats are only stored on the devices of its users, not on company servers.

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However, Telegram has been hard at work trying to improve security all around in its app, especially for its cloud chats. Telegram uses a proprietary encryption protocol, MTProto, which has grown significantly from version 1.0 to 2.0 in December 2017. By default, Telegram's regular cloud-based chats are stored on its servers, but it uses a distributed infrastructure where decryption keys are split amongst locations, so data is more secure.

So yes, cloud chats are more secure than before, but Telegram still has access. The company claims to have "disclosed 0 bytes of user data to third parties, including governments," but if you're sharing sensitive information, it's better to go with E2E encryption. With client-to-client communications, messages remain on user devices only, not on company servers that could potentially be subpoenaed for information.

Keeping Your Chats Private with End-to-End Encryption

So how do you make sure you're using end-to-end encryption in your chats on Telegram? Just use Telegram's "Secret Chat" feature. The benefits of using Secret Chat over a regular chat are numerous.

Messages use end-to-end encryption.
Messages stay on devices, not in Telegram's servers.
Messages are device-specific so you can not sync them with other devices.
Messages cannot be forwarded.
Messages can be set to self-destruct.
Messages can only be deleted for both parties, not one or the other.

Enabling Secret Chat on iPhone

To start a Secret Chat on an iPhone, tap on the new message icon in the top right of the "Chats" tab, then select "New Secret Chat. " Select the contact you'd like to initiate the Secret Chat with, and on the next screen, it will show that you have invited them to join. Note that they need to be in your contacts list to Secret Chat with them.

Enabling Secret Chat on Android

To start a Secret Chat on an Android phone, there are two ways to go about it. For the first way (left GIF below), tap the three-lined sidebar menu icon, then tap "New Secret Chat," followed by the name of the contact. For the second way (right GIF below), tap on the new message icon in the bottom right of the "Chats" screen, select "New Secret Chat," then the name of the contact.

Either way, on the next screen, it will show that you have invited them to join. Note that they need to be in your contacts list to Secret Chat with them.

The Facts About Secret Chat's Functionality

In a Secret Chat, you can send photos, videos, voice messages, stickers, files, and even your location. Just like regular text, they are only visible on user devices and not stored in Telegram's servers. The data is processed on its servers, but Telegram states it "store[s] and process random sequences of symbols that have no meaning without the keys which [it doesn't] have," so files will remain indecipherable outside of you or your recipient's phone.

You can also initiate an end-to-end encrypted phone call, though, all phone calls in Telegram use end-to-end encryption. The phone call log will end up outside of the Secret Chat, however odd that sounds, and it won't be marked with a lock like Secret Chats.

As stated above in the bullet list, if you decide to delete a message in a Secret Chat, you can only do so for both you and the other party. You can do this in regular chats as well, but you also have the option to delete the message for yourself.

Additionally, you can "clear" the history for a Secret Chat to erase all messages within on both sides. On an iPhone, you would swipe left on the Secret Chat from the "Chats" tab, select "Delete," then "Clear History." On Android, you can choose the Secret Chat from the main Telegram screen, tap the vertical ellipsis, then "Clear history. " Alternatively, you can tap the vertical ellipsis from inside the Secret Chat, then select "Clear history."

If someone decides to "delete" the whole Secret Chat, the other party will still be able to view all of the messages. However, iPhone users will get a "Delete and Exit" notification to prompt them to clean house, while Android users will get a "Secret chat canceled" alert, and it will be up to them to manually delete it.

If you screenshots in Telegram on Android (which is only possible now on older Android OS and Telegram versions), any time you take a screenshot in a Secret Chat, an alert will appear directly inside the Secret Chat for both you and them to see. If you take a screenshot on an iPhone, both you and the other person will get a notification in the Secret Chat as well.

And a few quick last things to note: You cannot convert regular chats to Secret Chats, nor can you downgrade Secret Chats to cloud chats. Also, Secret Chats do not support group messaging — only person to person. It's challenging to add E2E encryption to group chats, and Telegram claims that WhatsApp, iMessage, and other E2E encrypted group chats aren't implemented securely. Until Telegram finds a way to keep group chats secure, Secret Chats are not supported for group conversations.

This article was produced during Gadget Hacks' special coverage on texting, instant messaging, calling, and audio/video chatting with your smartphone. Check out the whole Chat series.

Don't Miss: How to Make Your Entire Telegram Account Self-Destruct (Or Just Delete It)

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Security, privacy and encryption settings in Telegram

WhatsApp recently changed the privacy policy of user data. Many users did not like this step, and this led some of them to flee from WhatsApp to other messengers, including Telegram. Apparently, it was this “exodus” that helped Telegram gain 25 million new users in just a few days – the messenger’s total audience now stands at more than 500 million users.

It's time to talk about how to act so that communication in Telegram is truly safe and private.

Most importantly: Telegram does not use end-to-end encryption by default

The first thing to know about Telegram is that "cloud" chats - as Telegram calls the standard type of chats that are used by default - do not use end-to-end encryption. What is end-to-end encryption and why it is important for the security of correspondence - you can read here.

In short, this means that Telegram has access not only to metadata (to whom you wrote, when you wrote and how much), like WhatsApp, but also to all the content of user correspondence in standard chats used by the messenger by default. At the moment, according to Telegram's privacy policy, this data is not used for advertising. But, as we already know from experience, politics can change.

How to enable end-to-end encryption in Telegram: "secret" chats

At the same time, Telegram has end-to-end encryption - it just needs to be enabled separately. Therefore, if you value the privacy of your data, you should not forget to use chats in which end-to-end encryption is enabled - Telegram calls them "secret" chats.

In "secret" chats, both text messages, and pictures, and videos, and all other files are transmitted using end-to-end encryption. Only the interlocutors have the decryption key, so Telegram cannot access this data.

Moreover, the contents of "secret" chats are not stored on Telegram's servers. "Secret" chats are stored only on the devices of the participants in the correspondence - as a result, they cannot be accessed from another device, plus they disappear when you exit Telegram and when you delete the application.

Secret Chats are available on iOS, Android and macOS apps. The web version and Windows app do not support "secret" chats because these versions cannot store conversations securely on the device. So using Telegram for confidential conversations on a Windows or Linux computer is undesirable.

How to create a "secret" chat in Telegram

In the current versions of Telegram applications, the option to create a "secret" chat is hidden quite deeply, and it is not so easy to find it - especially for a novice messenger user.

To create a "secret" chat, you need to open the profile of your interlocutor, press the button with three dots (sometimes it has a signature More , and sometimes there is no signature) and select Start secret chat .

How to create a "secret" chat in Telegram

After that, a chat will open, the messages in which will be encrypted with end-to-end encryption (at first, it will even be specially written in the chat window). You can also set the time after which your messages will be automatically deleted: to do this, click on the clock icon in the message input panel.

How to set automatic deletion of messages in Telegram by timer

Of course, automatic deletion of messages will not prevent your interlocutor from taking screenshots, but in this case, a message about this will appear in the chat. True, there is an exception: if a user took a screenshot on macOS, then a notification about this will not come.

What else is useful to know about Telegram: there can be several secret chats with the same interlocutor. But group chats cannot be “secret”, unlike WhatsApp, in which all chats use end-to-end encryption by default.

How to understand inside a chat if end-to-end encryption is enabled: lock icon

of which you communicate. If there is some very important data in the correspondence, then it would be better for this chat to be “secret”, right?

Unfortunately, inside the "secret" and "cloud" chats look almost identical, differing in just a few details. To make sure end-to-end encryption is enabled, look for the padlock icon next to the name or phone number of the person you're talking to. If there is a lock, then this is a “secret” chat. If there is no padlock, then end-to-end encryption is not enabled - and it is better to create a new chat.

How to understand that you are in a "secret" chat: look for a padlock at the top of the screen

You can also click on the icon of your interlocutor - if end-to-end encryption is used in the chat, line 9 will be displayed at the very bottom of the window that opens0027 Encryption key .

How to set up security and privacy in the Telegram app

It also doesn't hurt to properly set up security and privacy in the app. To do this, press the button Settings in the lower right corner of the screen and select the item Privacy .

Security settings in Telegram

The first step is to make sure that someone does not read your correspondence at the moment when you accidentally left your unlocked device unattended. To do this, on the tab that opens, select item Passcode , press Enable passcode , create a PIN that you won't forget, set it and confirm.

After that, select the item Auto-lock and set some small value - one minute or five. If your device supports fingerprint or face recognition login, you can enable the corresponding option here.

How to properly set up security in Telegram

The next step is to protect your account from theft using two-factor authentication. Since the primary way to confirm login to your Telegram account is a one-time code in SMS, the messenger offers to set a password as the second factor.

To do this, on the Privacy tab , select Two-Step Verification (Android) or Cloud Password (iOS) and set some strong combination. It is important to remember that you will not be entering this password often, so it is very easy to forget it. So it's best to save it somewhere safe, like a password manager.

What happens if you forget this cloud password? You will have to reset your account. In essence, this means that you will submit a request for the complete removal of your account, after which you will have to wait seven days. After a week, the account will be deleted (with all contacts, cloud chats and channel subscriptions), and you will be able to create a new, completely empty account on the same phone number.

Privacy settings in Telegram

In order not to share unnecessary information with all 500 million Telegram users, it is worth setting profile privacy. To do this, go through the settings of Privacy and change the set values - by default, all these data and features are available to everyone. We recommend the following settings:

Phone number -> Who can see my phone number - Nobody .
Phone number -> Who can find me by number - My contacts .
Last activity -> Who sees when I'm online - Nobody .
Profile photo -> Who sees my photo - My contacts .
Calls -> Who can call me - My contacts (or Nobody if you are not interested in this feature at all).
Calls -> Peer-to-peer - My contacts (or Nobody if you prefer not to share information about your IP address with your interlocutors).
Message forwarding -> Who can refer to my account when forwarding messages - My contacts .
Groups and channels -> Who can invite me - My contacts .

How to properly set up privacy in Telegram

You can also look at Privacy -> Data Management and delete from the Telegram storage the information that seems superfluous to you.

Telegram security for the most cautious

The above tips should be enough for most users, but for the most cautious, we have a few more recommendations:

Use a separate phone number to log into Telegram. Or maybe even a virtual phone number instead of a real mobile. However, be careful and make sure that this number is not a one-time use - otherwise someone else can gain access to your account.
Turn on a secure connection to hide your IP address - Telegram can disclose it, for example, at the request of law enforcement agencies.
Consider using another messenger that is more secure and private, such as Signal or Threema. Unlike Telegram, all chats are encrypted by default and there are additional privacy mechanisms. But they are not as popular and they lack some of the features that attract Telegram users.

And, of course, do not forget that even the most secure messenger in the world becomes defenseless if someone gets access to your device - physical or remote.

Therefore, be sure to lock all your devices with a pin code, update all programs installed on them and the operating system in time, and also protect them from malware with a reliable antivirus.

Encryption in Telegram, how to create a secret chat in Telegram

Contents

The latest history of encryption of telegrams
Features
Secret chat
Creation of secret chat in Telegram
Installation of a self -destruction timer
Reality of hacking

Choosing messenger for communication with close people, many users pay attention. like privacy. No one wants someone, be it private citizens or representatives of the FSB, rummaging through "dirty linen." Recently, it has become known that the declared encryption in Telegram is not an empty phrase. If you want to get the true, not in words, the secret of correspondence, the messenger will provide it to you one hundred percent.

This is interesting: according to statistics, the cross-platform service today has more than 200 million users.

The latest history of Telegram encryption

In March 2018, at the state level, the FSB authorities made an attempt to penetrate the holy of holies of the messenger in order to gain access to the correspondence of citizens using the platform. This fact itself became proof that unauthorized penetration into chat rooms is impossible.

Representatives of the FSB, even with the threat of blocking Telegram, failed to obtain access keys to the correspondence. They were not helped either by going to court or by a court decision in favor of the FSB. Under pressure and the threat of blocking the messenger on the territory of the Russian Federation, Pavel Durov categorically refused to allow government officials to access the confidential data of his clients.

According to the creator of the messenger, Pavel Durov, every day 600,000 new users arrive in the chatting family.

Features

According to analysts, it was the creation of a well-protected product that made the messenger so popular. The creator has developed his own protocol - MTProto, which provides one hundred percent data protection.

The ability of a service to provide privacy protection is assessed by the EFF (Electronic Frontier Score). The services being tested are rated on a scale of 1-7. The telegram is given 2 scores:

secret chats that use end-to-end encryption (E2E) are given a score of 7;
standard correspondence - 4.

Both points "speak" that the service is maximally protected from hacks. Even ordinary chats that are not protected by special protocols are not so easy to hack.

Secret Chat

Secret Chat is one of the secrets of the popularity of the messenger, which is considered its positive feature, which ensures the security of communication.

A detailed acquaintance with Secret Chat allows us to highlight several of its important features:

instant deletion of correspondence after sending;
sent message data is not stored on the server;
protection power provides end-to-end message encryption.

No one but the recipient and sender can access the message. Even the developers of the messenger are unable to decrypt the personal correspondence of users. Confidentiality is guarded by the algorithms used by the system.

Users are given the opportunity to independently set a self-destruction timer for a specific correspondence:

minimum time is 2 seconds;
maximum time is 7 days.

After the specified time has elapsed, the correspondence will automatically self-destruct. The timer starts after reading the message. When setting the minimum time, the message is deleted from the system immediately after it is read. If the recipient decides to be smart and takes a screenshot of the received letter, the system will record this action and notify the sender about it.

The overwhelming majority of those registered in the system are Russians, the age range in which this majority of users fits is from 18 to 24 years. On average, citizens of the Russian Federation are in the service 10-11 minutes a day.

Creation of a secret chat in Telegram

Formation of a new secret chat in the Telegram messenger is carried out as follows:

1. Go to the menu by clicking on the button in the right part below.

2.Select the "New Secret Chat" option.

3.Find in the list of contacts the person with whom you wish to carry out confidential correspondence.

Task completed.

Setting the self-destruct timer

It is also easy to set a timer, thanks to which your correspondence will cease to exist at the right moment. It's done like this:
1.Go to the menu located inside the chat at the top right and look like this “…”.

2. Select the "Set self-destruct timer" function.

3. Set the time that you consider optimal for the "life" of your correspondence.

4.Press the "Finish" button.

Task completed.

When creating secret chats, users should take into account some of their features:

with one friend in Telegram, several active chats can be created at once;
as soon as you leave your account, the secret chat will be deleted;
Secret Chat is tied to a specific device. That is, if you started chatting on a tablet, your messages will not be visible on a smartphone or computer.

Many users consider the last item to be a disadvantage. However, this is one of the conditions for maintaining the secrecy of correspondence, which is allegedly protected by law.

If you want your chat to be displayed on all the devices you use, do not create secret chats, but use the standard chat mode.

The reality of hacking

Finally, we will try to briefly answer the question that worries many users: is it possible to hack an account and read the correspondence.

Even with all the reliability of MTProto, workarounds can be found. It is possible to bypass the protocol if you intercept an SMS with an access code for authorization. The code will be the key to hacking the account and reading the user's correspondence. In this case, the protocol itself will be completely irrelevant.

A 40-year-old SS7 data transfer method could be exploited by an attacker.

How to encrypt telegram

How to create a secret chat on Telegram and turn on end-to-end encryption

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Security, privacy and encryption settings in Telegram

Most importantly: Telegram does not use end-to-end encryption by default

How to enable end-to-end encryption in Telegram: "secret" chats

How to create a "secret" chat in Telegram

How to understand inside a chat if end-to-end encryption is enabled: lock icon

How to set up security and privacy in the Telegram app

Security settings in Telegram

Privacy settings in Telegram

Telegram security for the most cautious

Encryption in Telegram, how to create a secret chat in Telegram

The latest history of Telegram encryption

Features

Secret Chat

Creation of a secret chat in Telegram

Setting the self-destruct timer

The reality of hacking

Learn more