By default, yes. It is possible to create a so-called secret chat, which is standard for signal and similar, but that's something you have to manually do. Furthermore, it's not even possible to make secret chats for groups. When it was initially released, I was cautiously optimistic that it could turn into a good, secure application, but knowing it's been this long and it hasn't, I wouldn't consider that likely.
spinning_disk_engineer
joined 7 months ago
This exists in Canada, and it's called jmp.chat. They use jabber, rather than simpleX, but they will optionally provide a server, which you could then bridge to your own server without needing port forwarding or anything like that.
They do take payments in monero, but for some reason you can't create an account with only monero unless you contact support first…and they don't do support by email, only phone/sms and jabber. There are public jabber servers, so it should be entirely possible, just inconvenient. They also take payment by mail, which I think includes cash.
I'm not sure the logistics of using jmp.chat outside of Canada, but I know it is somewhat possible to do in the US. Of course, there's nothing forcing you to actually be in the same area as the service, but people who live in the same area as you might question the +1 phone number, and might get charged more by their provider.
I'm not entirely sure what you're trying to say here. To clarify, telegram uses a store-forward architecture, meaning that it deletes messages from the server once they have been received by everyone. Until that time, the messages are stored on the server in plaintext, unless you're using a secret chat. They do this to avoid having to exchange keys between different clients, but what that really means is that it isn't actually private most of the time.