Telegram launching Instagram-like stories
Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has announced that the company will add Instagram-like stories to the platform following numerous requests for such a feature.
Durov said “Stories” has been one of the most requested features from Telegram users for several years, and despite being against the idea at first, it has now given in.
“More than half of all feature requests that we receive are related to Stories,” said Durov.
“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.”
“So we will be launching Stories soon — in the Telegram way,” he added.
The Telegram CEO listed several critical aspects of the Stories feature:
- Privacy — Users can define who sees each of their stories, with options to share with everyone, only your contacts (with exceptions), a few specific contacts, or a list of Close Friends.
- Compact UI — Durov said Stories would sit at the top of your chat list and will expand when selected.
- Flexibility — Telegram will make it easy to hide Stories posted by any contact by letting users move them to their “Hidden” list.
- Captions — Telegram will let users add captions to their stories, in addition to allowing access to “dozens of powerful photo and video-editing tools”.
- Dual Camera Support — Users will be able to post videos taken by the front and rear cameras simultaneously.
- Optional Ephemerality — Users will be able to choose how long a story remains visible. Options include six, 12, 24, or 48 hours. Users can also opt to have the story displayed permanently.
Durov added that further “surprises” would make their way to the Stories feature.
Telegram’s Stories is currently in the testing phase and intends to launch in early July.
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