Telegram is often the source of inspiration for new features on WhatsApp and other messaging apps. But in a rare reversal of roles, the former has just announced a new feature that takes cues from other platforms. It’s finally adding Stories, those temporary photos and videos that are pretty much omnipresent in the social media space (known as Status on WhatsApp).
In a lengthy post on his Telegram channel, CEO Pavel Durov said that the company was originally against Stories because they were everywhere. But users have been repeatedly asking for the feature. “More than half of all feature requests that we receive are related to Stories,” Durov said. “Telegram wouldn’t be Telegram if we didn’t listen to our users and didn’t innovate on existing formats,” he added.
According to the Telegram CEO, Stories are in their last testing phase. The new feature will roll out to users in early July. Ahead of that, Durov outlined six key points explaining how Stories on Telegram will work. The platform is keeping its privacy-first approach intact with Stories. You will get to choose who sees your Stories. You can select from everyone, all of your saved contacts, a few selected contacts, and a list of Close Friends.
Telegram will place Stories at the top of your chat list on mobile apps. It will add an expandable section for those temporary photos and videos to ensure that they don’t take up much space. Whenever you want to see a story, simply tap on it, and the whole section will expand for easy access. If you don’t want to see Stories from a certain contact, hiding them will be easy too. You can do that by “moving them to the ‘Hidden’ list in your Contacts section instead of the main screen,” Durov explains.
Telegram will let you add captions to your Stories
Stories on Telegram will come with caption support. You can add more context to your Stories with captions. This is in addition to the existing set of photo and video-editing tools that let you carefully design your Stories. Moreover, you can simultaneously record videos from your phone’s front and rear cameras and post them as Stories. Last but not least, you can choose when a story expires. Telegram will offer four different options: 6, 12, 24, or 48 hours. You can even make Stories permanent. They will appear on your profile page, with Telegram giving you individual privacy settings for each.
Durov said that the company is also planning to add the ability to repost messages from channels to Stories. “Going viral on Telegram will become a lot easier” with this feature, he added. This will also help channels as they will “benefit from more exposure and subscribers.” Stories “will herald a new era on Telegram, where it will become even more fun and social than it currently is,” the Telegram CEO concluded his lengthy post. If you use Telegram, watch out for a new update in the coming weeks.