Telegram has been used by opposition and protestors in Hong Kong, Russia, and Belarus. Where are the reports of arrests based on intercepted Telegram messages? Russian police force people on the street to show their messages, but that kind of rubber hose attack is the same for all chat apps. Are there any police investigations from democratic countries where the investigators used Telegram communication in a prosecution?

I haven't seen anyone show that Telegram uses bad encryption. I've seen plenty of people repeat the "don't make your own crypto implementation" mantra, but just like the "don't optimize prematurely" truthism it's not always true. Where's the exploits?

And then there's another reason, most communication isn't particularly sensitive. Dinner suggestions, memes, thoughts on the latest season of The Crown... I chat about the same things that I talk about on the unencrypted phone "line", or at a cafe surrounded by strangers. If Telegram turns out to be unsafe, I wouldn't have any issue with continuing using it for everyday stuff, and using a different app for secrets. Compartmentalizing is probably a good idea anyway, I use my real name on Telegram with my family.