Telegram Introduces Innovative Updates: Channel Stories, Sticker Reactions, and More

Telegram, the popular messaging app, has released a bunch of new features to make the platform more engaging. The company is expanding its Stories feature, which was introduced earlier this year to premium users and then to everyone in August.

Now you can add reaction stickers and your own music to your stickers, and there’s a new View Once feature that lets you send photos and videos that disappear after viewing. Here’s everything new in Telegram.

Stories for channels

Telegram users can “enable” their favorite channels to post stories by giving them boosts. By default, Telegram Premium now offers one effect that users can reserve for any channel of their choice.

Telegram says that “channels can level up as they gain more power,” and for each level they can post one additional story per day to their subscribers’ story feeds.

Reaction stickers in stories

Telegram users can now react to stories with stickers. The stories published by the channels also show a reaction counter, so you can see how many people reacted to each story with which emoji. Everyone can add one reaction sticker to each story, but Premium users can add up to five.

Add your music to stories

Users can add their own soundtracks to their stories, be it music or voiceovers. To add a custom sound, users need to go to the sticker panel, tap “Sound” and select a file, then adjust the song to select any section.

View-Once Media

Telegram also has a new feature that lets you control how long your photos and videos are visible after you send them. In any one-on-one chat, tap the media editor and choose how long you want the photo or video to be visible, from one view to 30 seconds. When the recipient opens it, it is permanently deleted.

Login notifications

Telegram already notifies you when someone logs in from a new device, but now it takes security even further by sending you an alert right at the top of your chat list.