- By Vikas Yadav
- Sat, 22 Jul 2023 05:20 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
JE Technology Desk: Telegram, a popular messaging app that serves over 500 million active users, is adding 'Stories' to its platform for Premium users. The update came after Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram, announced last month that the platform will get the feature in July. It is unclear when the platform will launch Stories for free users at the moment.
The Telegram boss added that Stories is among the most requested feature in recent times. While the company was initially reluctant to release Stories due to its omnipresent character but ended up listening to its users, according to TechCrunch.
"You think I'd forget that? There's a + button at the top of your chat list for posting Stories. Currently, only Premium users are able to post Stories," Twitter profile of Telegram Messenger posted. The company added - "everyone will be able to post (Stories) soon."
A Telegram user can choose who can see their stories. The settings are similar to Meta's rival WhatsApp. They include the options to make it viewable to everyone, only your contacts, a selective list from the contacts or a close friend circle. It will be present in an expandable space at the top. Users can hide the stories they do not want to see by sending them to the "Hidden" list from the Contacts section.
Users can add links, and texts and tag people in Stories. Besides this, a user can post photos and videos clicked from the back and front cameras of a smartphone simultaneously, according to the report. Four expiration periods for a story will be available: 6, 12, 24 or 48 hours. An option to let users paste Stories permanently (like Instagram's Story Highlights) will also be there.
Users can install the latest version of Telegram on Android, iOS and Desktops to try out the feature. Paid users can also add stickers, quizzes and polls to Stories. Durov had earlier highlighted that the internal testing made this feature irresistible for a launch.