Telegram vs WhatsApp! A debate that rages on ever since mankind embarked on an era of personal instant messaging in a world populated by smartphones! For years, the world has alternated between the widely acceptable WhatsApp and the privacy-centric community-nurturing Telegram. To elect a winner between these two might be a task but Telegram’s CEO insists otherwise – a simple contest that urges you to prove that WhatsApp is isn’t as good!
In a public message to all Telegram users and content creators, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has announced a new video contest that celebrates the platform’s greatness. Durov, in his announcement, accuses WhatsApp of being a copycat and undertaking smear campaigns to sow distrust among its users. In what seems like a formal declaration of war against its ‘green rival’, Durov is willing to pay handsomely for whoever manages to expose Telegram’s ‘biggest copycat.’
All you need to know about the latest Telegram contest
Pavel Durov reached out to his followers on Telegram, shedding light on how his messaging platform faces a lot of challenge from its greatest rival. In a lengthy outreach that talks about the various alleged ways WhatsApp undertakes to gain advantage, Durov express his displeasure and encourages the community to join him in the pursuit of exposing WhatsApp’s intentions.
“We’ve just launched our first-ever contest for content creators. The goal is simple: create a viral video showing how Telegram has always been years ahead of its cheap copycat — WhatsApp,” says Durov.
“We’ve caught WhatsApp running smear PR campaigns against Telegram, so it’s only fair we hit back. No more playing nice — gloves off now,” he adds.
Durov is now going after WhatsApp, hoping to make WhatsApp users realise that they are “trapped in the past, using late, watered-down versions of innovations Telegram pioneered long before.”
“It’s time to wake WhatsApp users up,” adds Durov.
How to participate in the new Telegram contest
Telegram is urging content creators to simply highlight all those features on WhatsApp that came up on Telegram years before. The announcement demonstrates 30 major WhatsApp features that debuted on Telegram first, but Durov says there’s so much more. Hence, it is now up to the community to highlight those ‘copied features’
Here are all the steps that content creators need to ensure prior to participation.
Create a video highlighting the innovations that Telegram has over WhatsApp. Creators need to showcase how Telegram introduced key features years before WhatsApp adopted them.
The video should have on-screen text. The spoken content needs to be in English.
The video must be no longer than 180 seconds.
Creators can use AI tools as a supplementary tool.
Telegram says that the video should ensure great Clarity, visual impact, meme potential and virality. The video should be tailored for short video platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and other short-form vertical formats.
With a prize pool of USD 50,000, the deadline for submissions is set to the late hours of May 26, 2025, i.e., the video should be submitted by 23:59 Dubai time on May 26th, 2025. The results will be declared by June 2025.