Telegram to add Stories feature next month

Telegram catches up to social media platforms with Stories feature similar to WhatsApp and Instagram

Telegram CEO, Pavel Durov, has announced a new feature being added to the messaging application, to compete with other online messaging platforms like WhatsApp. Stories is being added to Telegram after various requests from users, said Durov.

Launching in early July, Stories will be able to share their precious moments while choosing who can view them and whose stories they wish to see or hide. According to the announcement, Stories will be placed in an expandable section at the top of the chat list.

Like the regular Stories feature on other apps, users can add captions, links or tag other people in their pictures or videos taken from their front or rear camera.

Users would also have the freedom to choose how long the Story would stay up from 6, 12, 24, or 48 hours. Stories can also permanently be displayed on the user profile similar to Instagram highlights.

“The ability to save your stories to the profile page will make Telegram profiles more informative and colorful,” Durov says. “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.”

While the CEO believes the feature will “herald a new era on Telegram”, it is still being tested internally before its release, though the announcement post claims that employees loved the feature.