When you search for Telegram clients on the Mac App Store, you will find two versions of the same app- Telegram and Telegram Lite. This can be confusing as both of them are official clients. In this article, we will help clear the confusion by comparing the Telegram and Telegram Lite apps on macOS, their features, and CPU & RAM usage.
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Telegram vs Telegram Lite on Mac: Comparison
Unlike Windows or Linux, the macOS gets two versions of the Telegram app. One is simply called Telegram while the other one is Telegram Lite. Even though both of them work similarly, they have different interfaces and sets of features.
Telegram vs Telegram Lite: User Interface
First off, let’s compare the difference in the UI or User interface of both apps to see how they differ from each other in terms of the looks of the main chat page and settings menu.
Telegram App UI
The UI of the Telegram app is almost identical to the iPhone and iPad versions of the Telegram app. From the main page to the bottom shortcuts and settings menu, the Telegram app will look familiar if you have used Telegram on your iPhone. It’s also written in Swift which is the native coding language of macOS.
Telegram Lite UI
Telegram Lite is the unified desktop version of Telegram that is available on Windows and Linux. That’s why it is written in C++ and lacks the fancy features of the Telegram app discussed above. But the layout is much more suitable for desktop usage and has slightly fewer resources which give it an edge in performance and stability.
Telegram vs Telegram Lite: Features
Now let us look at all the features telegram and telegram lite has to offer and compare which one of the app is more feature rich.
Telegram App Features
- The chat layout is similar to iOS.
- Opens in a smaller window.
- Quick access shortcuts at the bottom.
- Support for macOS gesture controls.
- Ability to create video messages.
- Exclusive System dark mode.
- Option to enable end-to-end encrypted Secret chat.
- Gradient color themes.
- Instant View
- Non-bubble mode.
- More animations and bigger emojis.
- Option to share the current location.
Telegram Lite Features
- Export chat history.
- Desktop-friendly interface.
- Option to clear payments and shipping info.
- Hardware accelerated video decoding.
- Option to disable all animations.
- Stable and fluid performance.
From this, it is obvious that the macOS Telegram app is more feature rich and will offer a similar experience to other versions of the Telegram app that are available on iOS and iPad while Telegram Lite is targeted mainly for steady performance.
Telegram vs Telegram Lite: CPU, RAM, and Battery Usage
When it comes to resource consumption, you would certainly think that the app that is called Telegram Lite would be less demanding than the regular Telegram app. Initially, we thought the same as well but had our doubts so we launched Activity Monitor to check the real-world resource consumption of both apps.
CPU Usage
CPU usage is the percentage of CPU capacity used by a program at any given time. The lesser CPU usage, the better. When compared with each other, the Telegram app is consuming more CPU resources than Telegram Lite as shown in the image below.
Telegram Lite wasn’t far behind while being used in the foreground. But the obvious winner here is Telegram Lite as it had the least CPU usage of the two.
RAM Usage
As for RAM usage, surprisingly both versions of Telegram consumed the almost same amount of RAM. As you can see in the image, both of them were taking up more than 300MB of space in RAM with the Telegram app taking up slightly more reaching 400MB of space.
In several instances, Telegram Lite overtook Telegram App in RAM usage so we can say that the result of this test is a tie between the two apps.
Battery Consumption
Coming to Battery consumption, we looked at the average 12-hour usage of both the apps on our 2020 MacBook pro with Touchbar and the result was as expected. The regular Telegram app consumed more battery than Telegram Lite.
Do note that we were running both apps simultaneously during the testing process. So the average consumption should not be affected by the startup time of the app.
Wrapping Up
This brings us to the end of the article. The macOS version of Telegram offers more features and customizations than Telegram Lite. But Telegram Lite will strike a chord with users who are either familiar with the Telegram desktop interface or those who want a stable version of the app without the extra clutter. But again, the lack of a secret chat is a big con for Telegram Lite.
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