Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has announced that the messaging app will be launching its own version of Stories soon. This decision comes after years of user requests, with more than half of all feature requests received by Telegram related to Stories.
Initially hesitant due to the feature’s widespread presence on other platforms, Telegram decided to listen to its users and innovate on existing formats. The upcoming Stories feature on Telegram will offer several unique aspects:
Privacy and Customization
Users will have precise control over who can view their stories. They can choose to make their stories visible to everyone, only their contacts (with exceptions), a select group of contacts, or a list of close friends. This ensures that users have full control over their story’s audience.
Compact and Accessible UI
Stories will be conveniently located in an expandable section at the top of the chat list, allowing easy access without taking up valuable screen space. This streamlined design ensures a seamless user experience while navigating through chats.
Flexibility and Management
Telegram users will have the ability to hide stories posted by any contact. By moving them to the “Hidden” list in the Contacts section, users can declutter their main screen and prioritize the content they wish to see.
Creative Features and Dual Camera Support
In addition to an array of powerful photo and video-editing tools, users will be able to add captions, context, links, and tag other individuals in their stories. Telegram’s Stories will also support dual camera functionality, enabling users to capture photos and videos simultaneously with both the front and rear cameras.
Ephemerality and Profile Enhancement
Users will have the option to choose the lifespan of their stories, ranging from 6, 12, 24, or 48 hours. Alternatively, they can select permanent display on their profile page, similar to Instagram’s Story highlights. Saving stories to the profile page will provide a more comprehensive and colorful representation of users, allowing others to explore their content and learn more about them.
The introduction of Stories on Telegram will not only enhance individual user experiences, but also benefit channels. Telegram plans to enable the reposting of messages from channels to stories, leading to increased exposure and subscribers for channel owners.
Availability
Telegram’s Stories feature is currently in its final testing phase and is set to be released in early July.
Regarding the announcement, Du Rove, Founder and CEO of Telegram, said,
For years, our users have been asking us to implement Stories in Telegram. More than half of all feature requests that we receive are related to Stories.
Initially, we were against this since Stories are already everywhere. However, Telegram wouldn’t be Telegram if we didn’t listen to our users and didn’t innovate on existing formats.
Overall, following our internal tests of Stories, even the skeptics on our team started to appreciate this feature. We can no longer imagine Telegram without it.