Originally, Tella was designed to document human rights violations and political violence. However, over time, civil society actors have used Tella for a wider range of deployments:
- By activists, organizers and human rights defenders to safely document events in their communities, produce reliable and verifiable evidence, and store data encrypted on their mobile devices
- By media, professional reporters and citizen journalists to store sensitive media files encrypted as they travel, particularly as they cross borders
- By civil society professionals and humanitarian workers to conduct interviews and collect data in poorly connected environments or in conflict areas
- By electoral observation and monitoring organizations to monitor elections from inside and outside polling stations in real time and expose electoral fraud
- By research institutions and international organizations to conduct research, interviews or surveys in challenging environments, particularly in conflict areas