Telegram to launch stories in “early July”

Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov announced that “Stories” would be coming to Telegram in early July. He made this known on his Telegram channel today.

He stated that even though the company has been hesitant about introducing Stories because they have become a common feature in various platforms, the company decided to heed to its customers’ demands over the years for this feature.

He enumerated the way Stories would work on the Telegram platform. See below in his own words:

• Privacy. You will be able to define who can see each of your stories with granular precision: Everyone, only your contacts (with exceptions), a few selected contacts, or a list of Close Friends.
• Compact UI. Stories will be placed in an expandable section at the top of your chat list, which makes them easily accessible without taking away valuable space.
• Flexibility. It will be easy to hide Stories posted by any contact, moving them to the ‘Hidden’ list in your Contacts section instead of the main screen.
• Captions. In addition to making use of dozens of powerful photo and video-editing tools, you will be able to provide captions for your stories to add more context or links and tag other people.
• Dual Camera Support. Building on the success of Telegram’s Video Messages, we’re adding the option to post photos and videos taken by the front and the rear cameras simultaneously.
• Optional Ephemerality. You’ll be able to choose when a story expires – in 6, 12, 24, or 48 hours – or permanently display stories on your profile page, with individual privacy settings for each.

The option to save your stories to your profile page will enhance the informational and visual appeal of Telegram profiles. This feature allows you to delve into more content shared by your closest contacts and gain valuable insights about users you interact with in groups or channel comments.

Moreover, channels will experience increased exposure and attract more subscribers. With the upcoming feature that enables reposting messages from channels to stories, achieving viral status on Telegram will become significantly more accessible.

He remarked that after conducting internal tests on Stories, even the skeptics within the Telegram team began to recognize and appreciate the value of this feature.

Durov stated that Stories are currently undergoing their final testing phase and are scheduled to be released in early July. He believes that this exciting development will mark the beginning of a new era for Telegram, making the platform even more enjoyable and sociable than it already is.

Snapchat launched Stories in 2013 while Instagram and Facebook launched Stories in 2016 and 2017 respectively