Telegram doesn’t want to be left behind. The CEO of the messaging app, Pavel Durov, has announced on his own Telegram channel the launch of a Stories feature that is currently in the testing phase and will be released publicly in early July.
In this way, Telegram will integrate a feature that its rival WhatsApp launched several years ago (the opposite of what we are accustomed to). Durov states in his announcement that despite the company’s initial refusal to implement Stories because they were “everywhere,” they have been compelled to introduce this feature after realizing that more than half of the requests they receive are related to Stories.
The Stories will appear at the top of the chat list in a collapsible section and can be configured to be visible only to the people you choose: everyone, only your contacts, a selection of your contacts, or a list of close friends. If you don’t want to see Stories from a particular contact, you can simply move them to the “Hidden” list in your Contacts section instead of the main screen.
You will be able to choose the expiration date of your stories, selecting between 6, 12, 24, or 48 hours, or displaying the ones you’re interested in permanently on your profile. Telegram will also allow us to add captions and links to Stories, as well as tag other people. Additionally, the feature will enable us to upload photos or videos recorded with the front and rear cameras, similar to BeReal.
“The ability to save your stories on the profile page will make Telegram profiles more informative and colorful,” stated Durov. “Not only will you be able to explore more content from your closest contacts, but you will finally discover more information about the users you connect with in groups or channel comments. Speaking of channels, they will benefit from more exposure and subscribers: once we launch the ability to forward channel messages to stories, going viral on Telegram will be much easier.”
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