Telegram will introduce its Stories in July

In July, Telegram will launch Stories, a significant feature update for all of you storytellers out there. The lifespan of a user's story post can be set to 6, 12, 24, or 48 hours. There is also a long-term solution.

The CEO of Telegram, Pavel Durov, acknowledges that user pressure after "years" of requests has eliminated his original resistance to introducing Stories to Telegram. Durov writes a long message in which he declares that going viral on Telegram is now even simpler:

The ability to save your stories to the profile page will make Telegram profiles more informative and colorful. You will not only be able to explore more content from your closest contacts, but finally discover more information about 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 repost messages from channels to stories, going viral on Telegram will become a lot easier.

Durov uses six main themes to highlight the update: privacy, flexibility, captions, dual camera support, and optional ephemerality. Let's examine each in more detail.

Privacy: Users are given flexible discretion to precisely specify their audience. For instance, Instagram lets users choose whether to share their tales openly or just with their closest friends. You can choose from "everyone," "just your contacts (with exclusions")," "a few selected contacts," or "a list of Close Friends" in Telegram, which goes a step further. This gives it a ton of customizability.

Simple user interface: The Telegram team pledges not to impose. According to Durov, "Stories will be placed in an expandable section at the top of your chat list, making them easily accessible without consuming valuable space."

Flexibility: You can choose to conceal the story postings made by a certain contact if they are making you sad. Simply transfer them to the Contacts section's 'Hidden' list.

Interesting feature that could be used as a "poor man's 360° camera" is dual camera support. The CEO of Telegram said, "We're adding the option to post images and videos captured by both the front and rear cameras simultaneously."

For those of you who want to schedule your Stories for a time period other than the 'standard' 24 hours, optional ephemerality is quite helpful. According to Durov, "you'll be able to choose when a story expires" (in 6, 12, 24, or 48 hours) as well as whether to permanently display stories on your profile page with specific privacy settings.

The feature will be released at the beginning of July and is currently undergoing final testing.