It seems like what most people are worried about is the lack of privacy of Whatsapp/FB Group because it will divulge your number to everybody else in the group, like this post right below.
ecureilx wrote: Whatsapp is also the best way for Creeps, desperate, spammers, tele marketers, insurance sales people and sundry to stalk someone, since, yes, get this, your number is exposed, and unlike other mediums, it's easier to really get on those, especially those FOBs, who are very trusting..
I would recommend y'all to try out Telegram.ecureilx wrote: It's not necessary to provide personal phone no to strangers.
You will be required to input your number upon registration, but ONLY your username (also known as your @xxxxx) will be shown to others in the group. If you have no username, nothing will be shown except your input name and profile picture (if any). If you share your contact information with someone, your number will be revealed to him/her.
To add on, Telegram also offers the "Invite link" option which allows many people to join without having to "hey can you PM me your number, etc." Click on the link, and boom, you're in. Telegram Web is also a feature akin to Whatsapp Web. You can easily use Telegram at your convenience like in office without having to glance at your phone all the time.CSrob wrote: if you would allow someone to just create a group and share the invite link, we could actually have a community of younger people (because news flash: forums are not cool anymore) and get some meet ups going on!
If you're having concerns like this one above, I have great news for you.CSrob wrote:If you actually want to contribute to this thread, try suggesting an app that is more private and wouldn't be too inconvenient to download.
Telegram is completely free on Appstore and Playstore with absolutely NO in-app purchases, and it's probably one of the hottest messaging applications alongside with WhatsApp, WeChat, etc. It takes up 50MB on your phone if you're wondering. Admins can also be appointed to the group to facilitate any spam/telemarketers. Bots can also be implemented to automatically kick anyone out for spam if they send a (value: adjusted) amount of messages in a second. It has tons of other features such as reporting, filtering, warns, bans, kicks, welcome message, message pin, etc. It has a maximum group capacity of 10,000 members so I doubt that should pose any issue.
Security wise, read this link: https://telegram.org/faq#q-how-secure-is-telegram
Anyone wanna try the idea out?
Cheers =)