- You want every chat encrypted by default — no opt-in fiddling
- You don't want to share your phone number
- Your communities live on X rather than Telegram
- You care less about huge public channels and more about private groups
Head-to-Head Comparison
XChat vs Telegram Two Very Different Approaches.
Telegram is a 950-million-user media platform with optional encryption. XChat is a brand-new always-encrypted messenger tied to your X identity. They solve different problems — here's which one fits you.
| Dimension | XChat | Telegram |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | X Corp (Elon Musk) | Telegram FZ-LLC (Durov brothers) |
| Headquartered | United States | Dubai, UAE |
| Launched | April 24, 2026 | 2013 |
| Monthly Active Users | New (launch day) | ~950 million |
| End-to-end encryption | Yes, by default | Only in Secret Chats (opt-in) |
| Cloud chat encryption | N/A (always E2EE) | Server-side only |
| Phone number required | No — uses X account | Yes, mandatory |
| iOS | Yes (April 24, 2026) | Yes |
| Android | Not announced | Yes |
| Desktop / Web | Via x.com web only | Native + Web |
| Open source | No | Client yes, server no |
| Max group size | 350 members (growing) | 200,000 members |
| Public channels | No (groups only) | Yes, core feature |
| Bots | Not announced | Yes, huge ecosystem |
| Voice / video calls | Yes | Yes |
Who Should Choose What
- You run or follow big public channels (news, crypto, fandoms)
- You use bots for automation, polls, games
- You need groups larger than 481 members
- You're on Android (XChat not available there yet)
The Honest Take
Telegram is genuinely misunderstood. Most people assume it's an encrypted messenger — it isn't, not by default. Regular "cloud chats" are encrypted between you and Telegram's servers, but Telegram can read them. Only Secret Chats (opt-in, device-to-device, no multi-device sync) are E2EE. If privacy was the reason you chose Telegram, you may have been wrong.
What Telegram does win at is scale and ecosystem. 200,000-member groups, public channels with millions of subscribers, a huge bot ecosystem, and polished native clients on every platform. If you organize a big community, Telegram is hard to beat.
XChat goes the opposite direction: always encrypted, no bots (yet), no massive public channels, tied intimately to the X social platform. It's a more intimate, private tool — closer to iMessage or Signal in spirit — with X discovery layered on top.
Verdict: these aren't really competitors. Most people will end up using both — Telegram for public community stuff, XChat for private conversations inside the X world.
See our full XChat FAQ, or compare XChat vs WhatsApp and XChat vs Signal.