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Telegram on Monday announced that Stories are now available to all users. The tool was initially introduced to Premium subscribers last month and is now accessible to all users on the platform. This feature comes with certain tweaks and enhancements compared to the ones found on rival social media platforms. Alongside new privacy settings, the social media platform is also introducing a new camera feature that can be used while posting Stories. While all users also can get more detailed statistics than any other platforms, Telegram Premium users are also offered a unique Stealth mode on Telegram.
In a blog post, Telegram announced the rollout of the Stories feature to all its users. Claiming that this was one of the most requested features on the platform, the platform said that the development took several months as it added refinements to the feature found on almost every social media platform including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Signal, and WhatsApp.
Users will be able to see Stories in an expandable section at the top of the screen. A quick tap on a story will allow them to share, reply privately or react to it. One tap will send a heart emoji reaction, while a long press will allow users to choose from a range of other emojis to react with.
A significant upgrade to the Stories feature is a new dual-mode camera that allows users to post a single story using both the rear and front cameras. This provides a picture-in-picture-like layout that we get during video calls. Users will be able to take a photo or a video using the rear camera and most of the screen will be covered with that image or video, while the output recorded using the front camera will appear in a smaller circle on the top left corner of the screen.
Like Instagram, Telegram will allow users to add text, drawings, stickers and location tags to their stories. Users can also add additional images from their gallery or search for any GIF options to add to the story. The new update also supports captions – where users can put in longer text descriptions, tag friends or add links.
Privacy settings in Telegram have been updated with granular controls and the app offers four sub-sections — Everyone, My Contacts, Close Friends and Selected Contacts. These can be further customised, according to Telegram. Users can also select contacts who will never be able to view any of their stories. By default, the stories from someone’s contacts will appear on their profile.
The time that a story stays up can also be decided by the users. It can be 6, 12, 24 or 48 hours and they can also post the stories to their profile where both old and new connections will be able to view the stories in a grid-like format.
Another major update with the Telegram story feature is that, unlike any other platform, users can edit their stories. Once posted, changing any single element of a story is not permitted on Instagram, for instance. One has to delete the story, make wanted changes and then reupload the story. However, Telegram, with this update allows users to edit any element of their story at any time – from its visibility, caption, on-screen text, stickers or anything else.
Users can view read receipts of their stories and sort them by recent views first or reactions first. Telegram Premium subscribers are allowed to enable Stealth Mode – which erases their views from any stories they opened in the 5 minutes previous to enabling the mode, and hide what they view for the next 25 minutes.