Get ready to share your epic (and not-so-epic) moments, as Telegram CEO Pavel Durov announces the highly-anticipated addition of "Stories" to the messaging app in early July, offering a similar feature to its rival WhatsApp.
What Happened: On Tuesday, Durov took to Telegram and informed users that the messaging would soon be adding the "Stories" feature that is similar to its rival WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms Inc. META.
See Also: Upcoming WhatsApp Features: From Video Messages To Screen Sharing, Here’s What’s Expected
What The Feature Is All About: With Stories, users will have control over who can view their stories, with options to make them visible to everyone, contacts, select individuals, or a close friends list.
The Stories will be placed in an expandable section at the top of the chat list and users will be able to hide stories from specific contacts by moving them to the “Hidden” list in their Contacts section. Telegram users will also have the option to add captions, links and tag other individuals in their Stories.
How Long Stories Will Appear: To offer flexibility, users can choose the duration of their stories, ranging from six to 48 hours, or opt to permanently display them on their profile page, similar to Instagram’s Story highlights.
When Will The Feature Actually Be Available: The Stories feature is currently in its final testing phase and is set to be available to users in early July.
How Can You Use It: The Stories feature on Telegram will work somewhat in a similar fashion as WhatsApp status, albeit with a few additions. For instance, instead of a pencil-icon button like on WhatsApp, users on Telegram will see a plus in the top right corner and then click on the display picture of your preferred contact to see their story. Users will be able to respond to Telegram stories in the same way they do to WhatsApp statuses
Why It's Important: In May this year, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte extended the state-wide ban beyond TikTok by targeting messaging apps like Telegram over concerns about their alleged ties to foreign adversaries.
The Durov-founded messaging platform has also faced criticism as regular chats on the platform are not end-to-end encrypted, unlike "private" ones. Additionally, the messaging app was accused of being a source of misinformation amid the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
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Read Next: You Might Soon Be Able To Use Two WhatsApp Accounts On One Phone: Here’s How It Will Work
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