Thankfully, there is social life outside of Facebook's fishnet. Pavel Durov, Telegram's founder, estimates that the app now has almost 500 million active users, which is far less than WhatsApp and Facebook's reported one-point-something billion.

But it makes no difference. What matters is that Telegram is one of the best encrypted messaging apps available, providing a cross-platform, cloud-based distributed messaging service with no advertisements.

1. Get the Telegram app.

2. Make a phone number registration

3. Enter the verification code received via SMS.

4. Telegram may make a phone call to your phone instead.

5. At the very least, include your first name.

6. Allow Telegram to see your contacts and use it.