[hagbard_c]

Handwavy rants about shoddy cryptography tend to be just that, handwavy. Repeating that Telegram does not enable end-to-end encryption by default does not make it more of a reason not to use Telegram. Here's what you can do to live comfortably on the net, having conversations with the world and its dog while still being able to plot the overthrow of the government without inviting prying eyes: use Telegram for the former, use your private XMPP server with OMEMO for the latter. There, done, problem solved. No need for angry righteous rants about MTProto or the Emirates - and why exactly would that be the reason not to use Telegram by the way, would it have been less of an issue had they been located in Jakarta or Ouagadougou or Silly Valley - and all the bragging rights of using trusted cryptography for your local knitting club meetings where you plan to overthrow the government.

Source: this is what I do, except for the knitting. Telegram for talking to the family, XMPP standby on the server-under-the-stairs for when the going gets tough, with Conversation (which supports OMEMO) installed on target devices.

[pkulak]

To quote a popular movie from my youth; I dunno, man; that sounds like a lot of work.

I don't want to have to decide if every message I send is sensitive or not, then if it is, swap to a totally different app. Even worse: convincing friends and family to do the same!

[hagbard_c]

> I don't want to have to decide if every message I send is sensitive or not, then if it is, swap to a totally different app

Only those messages which are sensitive enough should be sent over the secure channel, the rest goes over Telegram. Assuming that you're not a full-time professional anarchist of the comic-book type (picture man in cloak with a lit bomb in hand) you won't have all that many messages which are so sensitive that you don't want to run the risk of the enemy getting hold of them so don't worry, you'll be fine. As said, there is always the end-to-end encrypted 'private chat' function in Telegram for exchanging passwords and such, those have not caught the ire of the handwave-brigade (yet).

> Even worse: convincing friends and family to do the same!

Unless they're all wearing black cloaks while holding lit bombs in their hands (see above) the same goes for them. It is not the knitting patterns the enemy is interested in. Even more, the enemy might become suspicious if you all of a sudden stop sharing them in such a way that it might be theoretically feasible to decrypt them. What are you planning on knitting next, they'll wonder, sweaters with subversive messages on them? Before you know it they'll be hiding bugs in your cereal, and I don't mean weevils.