Anony Bean vs Telegram: cloud chat is not secret chat
Telegram cloud chats are stored on Telegram servers, not end-to-end encrypted. Anony Bean keeps room state in memory only and expires every message in 60 seconds.
Telegram markets itself on privacy, speed and scale, and it is a polished product. But its default chat is a cloud chat, not a secret chat. That single distinction decides which messenger you should use for a conversation you want to vanish.
Cloud chats are stored, not sealed
In Telegram, ordinary chats are encrypted between your device and Telegram's servers and then stored there. They are not end-to-end encrypted. End-to-end encryption is limited to Secret Chats, which are per-device and not available for group chats. Cloud chats persist and sync across every device you log into, which is a wonderful feature for a lifetime messenger and a liability for a five-minute conversation.
Anony Bean is built the other way around. There is no account, no phone number and no email. The relay assigns each session a random throwaway handle. Room and timeline content lives in the relay's memory only, and that state is gone when the process restarts. There is no chat database.
The phone number is still the identity
Telegram requires a phone number to register. Your number is discoverable by contacts, and a username layers on top rather than replacing it. The account is permanent and portable, which means the history attached to it is permanent too.
Anony Bean has no registration step at all. You open the site in a browser, you get a handle that is discarded with the session, and you can talk in a public channel or open a secret room with an invite link and key that expire after 30 minutes.
Expiry you can actually observe
Messages, photos, files and polls on Anony Bean expire 60 seconds after they are sent. The relay sets the deadline and sweeps expired items every 50 ms, and the recipient's browser independently enforces expiry even if the relay stalls. Telegram offers auto-delete timers and Secret Chats, but they are settings you have to enable, and the default product remains a synced cloud archive. One is a deadline enforced by two independent clocks. The other is a preference.
| Anony Bean | Telegram | |
|---|---|---|
| Account required | No | Yes |
| Phone number required | No | Yes |
| End-to-end encrypted by default | Yes, all room messages and files | No, only Secret Chats, and never group chats |
| Message history kept | Relay memory only, no chat database | Cloud chats stored on Telegram servers and synced |
| Messages expire automatically | Yes, 60 seconds after sending, enforced twice | Only via timers you have to enable yourself |
| Ads and trackers | No analytics SDK, no ad tag, no tracking cookies | Account-based product surface with server-side storage |
| Works in the browser with no install | Yes | Yes, but tied to a phone number and account |
| Identity | Random throwaway handle per session | Phone number plus optional username |
Encryption without the asterisk
Anony Bean encrypts room text, file bytes and file names in the participants' browsers using the documented protocol v3, a double-ratchet design implemented in a WASM crypto module. The relay handles ciphertext for room content, so the default is not a special mode you have to find in a menu. It is on for every room message and file.
The caveats are real and we will not hide them. The protocol has not had an independent cryptographic audit. The site operator and the hosting and CDN providers can still see connection metadata. Screenshots cannot be prevented.
Feature roundup
- No sign-up, no phone number, no email, no install.
- End-to-end encryption on by default for room messages, files and filenames.
- EXIF metadata stripped from photos in the browser before encryption.
- 60-second expiry enforced by the relay and independently by the recipient's browser.
- A 120-second anti-lurker rule: send a message or finish a file upload, or the session disconnects.
- Public channels with 3, 9 or 99 seats, secret rooms with expiring invite keys, and a 1:1 Roulette mode with a truth-or-dare round.
- No analytics SDK, no advertising tag, no tracking cookies, no service worker, no WebRTC, so participants never connect directly and peers never learn each other's IP.
- Public timeline where thoughts last 15 minutes, comments last 5, and 51 upvotes opens a live room from a post.
- Reporting and blocking from the participant list, plus reporting on timeline posts.
Which one should you open
Telegram is a strong choice when you want a durable, synced, feature-rich account-based messenger and you accept that cloud chats live on someone else's servers. Anony Bean is the choice when you want a room, not a relationship, and you want the messages gone on a timer that two separate systems enforce.
Anony Bean wins the moment the conversation should not be stored anywhere at all.
The honest summary: cloud chat is a service, secret chat is a mode, and Anony Bean is a deadline. If you want history, use a product built for history. If you want a conversation with no account, no number and no archive, open Anony Bean and let the 60 seconds do their job.