Doctors Chat Groups: Telegram or Whatsapp?

Using closed chat groups is becoming increasingly popular amongst doctors. Whatsapp being one of the earliest has a very large user base, but more recently Telegram is emerging as an alternative messaging platform for doctors. The user base for Telegram may be smaller than Whatsapp for now, but it is fast growing and it holds many more advantages over Whatsapp and here’s why

1) Whatsapp group size is limited to only 256. A Telegram Supergroup currently has a maximum 50,000 group size.
2) Whatsapp messages are stored on your phone and especially if you download media, will tend to eat up your phone memory quickly, especially if the chat group is busy. Telegram messages and media are stored in the cloud and not on your phone. There is much less memory utilisation and indeed if you delete Telegram and reinstall it, you get all your messages back without the need for a cumbersome backup unlike Whatsapp.
3) The Whatsapp app runs only on the phone and there is a slow and wieldy Whatsapp Web which runs only if your phone’s Whatsapp client remains connected. Telegram apps are available for mobile, tablet and PC (Windows and Mac) and can run independently of your phone’s Telegram client though all the messages are perfectly synced. On top of that Telegram Web is faster and more efficient than Whatsapp web.
4) Telegram allows you to Edit your messages for up to 48 hours. Whatsapp has no edit message facility.
5) Malaysia has rather draconian laws regarding “sedition” and now “fake news”. This is a major concern for Group administrators as Whatsapp has only a brief “delete” window. After that period, and indeed once members of the group have read the message, the administrator cannot delete the message posted in the group for everyone as the message once read remains on the member’s phone. In a Telegram Supergroup, an administrator can delete messages for all members of the group at any time since messages are stored on the cloud and not on the phone.
6) A Telegram Supergroup allow more moderation tools e.g. using Moderation “bots”, and Pinned message function
7) There are many more useful utilities available via Telegram bots e.g. Voting booths, media search etc.

In view of the massive advantages Telegram has over Whatsapp, DOBBS, Malaysia’s pioneer and largest Doctors forum, has adopted Telegram as the preferred chat group for our doctors. We currently have over 1300 members in the Dobbs Telegram Supergroup
Please note that in the Dobbs Supergroup:
1) You won’t be disturbed by excessive notifications since by default, a Supergroup is muted. You will get only notifications for pinned messages and replies or if you are tagged (using @username)
2) You can browse the entire archive of the Dobbs Supergroup messages even if you have just joined. However it is more efficient to do a key word search if you are looking for particular messages
3) The Dobbs Telegram Supergroup membership is vetted strictly by the Dobbs Registration system. Only registered and verified doctors are allowed in the group. For most other groups, members are loosely “added” by group admins or other members and not vetted by a strict registration system.
4) The Dobbs Supergroup is governed by the general Dobbs Rules and also has chat group rules which our Butler Bot will inform each new member.

Are you a Malaysian doctor? Join DOBBS, our pioneer, completely free, largest and most active online community for Malaysian doctors. To join over 15,000 of your colleagues, you only need to register using the secure online form https://dobbs.my/osr