For countries in the outskirts of the world SMS authentication is a headache: waiting for hours to receive a message, some providers (e.g., Telia) don’t send SMS at all (despite charging the companies. authentication costs add up as user base grows, so it’s an opportunity for an ambitious dev to connect their work to company’s bottomline. I would appreciate an OPTION to choose Telegram/WhatsApp as an alternative to confirming my phone number. These are cheaper than sms and are faster since they don’t rely on traditional infrastructure. Telegram is huge in Central and Southeast Asia, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus. Check it out https://core.telegram.org/gateway/verification-tutorial