Signal is working on a way to sign up without a phone number. The feature has not yet been officially confirmed, and it is not yet known whether it will be available to all users or in what form.
I don’t believe Telegram desktop needed a mobile connection before and I used it for years and didn’t use a mobile client. I mostly used it as a bridge client for IRC and Matrix as the client itself was superior if you didn’t need privacy or encryption.
Telegram requires a phone number, last I checked, and Desktop needs to be signed in to from mobile. So the same as Signal for “Abuse Prevention” ™
And it’s only good for connecting to bot networks to deliver… Questionable content.
Most of my torrents ceom from Telegram bots, now that sites keep getting taken down who hosted them.
As to actually using it?
Well, the only contacts I have are pirate bots, and that will never change.
Still more than I have on Signal, though ;)
I don’t believe Telegram desktop needed a mobile connection before and I used it for years and didn’t use a mobile client. I mostly used it as a bridge client for IRC and Matrix as the client itself was superior if you didn’t need privacy or encryption.
And yet I get tons of spam on telegram, and the only way to prevent it is to subscribe to Telegram Premium
Well, I was worried about losing contact with the bots when I cancel my phone service, but maybe I won’t have to ;)
You can keep your number when switching networks.