Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has announced that the messaging app will introduce Stories in early July. Despite initial reservations due to the widespread availability of Stories on other platforms, Telegram decided to listen to user requests. More than half of the feature requests received by Telegram are related to Stories, according to Durov.
Telegram’s Stories will offer users control over who can view their posts. They can choose to make their Stories visible to everyone, their contacts, a selected few, or a list of close friends. The Stories section will be placed at the top of the chat list and can be hidden by moving them to the “Hidden” list in the Contacts section.
Users will be able to add captions, links, and tag other people in their Stories. Notably, Telegram will support simultaneous front and rear camera capture for photos and videos, resembling the BeReal style. Additionally, users can set an expiration time for their Stories, ranging from six to 48 hours. Alternatively, they can choose to permanently display Stories on their profile page, similar to Instagram’s Story highlights.
Durov believes that saving Stories to the profile page will enhance the informativeness and visual appeal of Telegram profiles. It will enable users to explore more content from close contacts and discover additional information about users they interact with in groups or channel comments. Furthermore, when Telegram introduces the ability to repost messages from channels to Stories, it is expected to boost exposure and subscriber count for channels, making viral content dissemination easier.
Having undergone internal testing, Stories received positive feedback even from skeptics within the Telegram team. Durov stated that Telegram can no longer envision the messaging service without the Stories feature. The final testing phase is underway, and Stories are set to be available in early July. Durov believes this feature will mark a new era for Telegram, making the platform more social and interactive.
