Telegram to Introduce Timed Story Expiry Feature in April
Pavel Durov has announced on his Telegram channel that the messaging service will introduce its own version of Stories next month. Despite initial reluctance due to the feature’s ubiquity, the company has responded to user demand and developed a highly customizable version.
The messaging service’s Stories feature looks just like Messenger, as they appear as expandable bubbles at the top of the conversation list. Users can determine who can see their messages and make them publicly viewable, only to their contacts (with exceptions), only to a select few contacts, or to a list of close friends. They can add captions and links to their stories and tag other people. Users can also share pictures and videos from the front and rear cameras at the same time, just like the messages found on BeReal.
If users don’t want to see messages from a particular contact, they can move them to the Hidden list in the contacts section. But perhaps the best thing about Telegram’s behavior so far is that users can choose when their stories expire. They can set them to disappear in 24 hours like other services, but they can also choose to have them disappear within 6, 12 or 48 hours. Users can even display their stories permanently on their profile page. If they do, they don’t have to set them up for anyone to see, and they can still choose the privacy setting for each message.
Durov said that Telegram has been testing the feature internally and that it is in the final stages of testing. The company plans to make Stories available in its app sometime in early July.
