The Telegram Stories feature has started rolling out to users. While announcing the feature last month, CEO Pavel Durov said it was in the "last testing phase" and could make its way to the app by early July. As expected, Telegram Stories lets users post updates in the app that disappear after a short amount of time.
You can try out the Stories feature in your Telegram app by updating it to the latest version. To access Stories, you can tap on "Chats" at the top of the screen to reveal an expandable UI. You can tap on the Create Story button in the top-right corner to start posting yours.
However, a catch here is that only Premium users can post stories on the app. Meanwhile, the free users can only view and respond to the stories posted by others. "Posting stories is currently available only to subscribers of Telegram Premium," a message appears when free users tap on the Create Story button in the app.
Telegram Premium is a paid subscription that costs $4.99/mo to unlock various perks, including faster download speeds, 4GB download size, premium stickers, unique reactions, and more.
You can get it via App Store or Google Play by going to Telegram Settings > Telegram Premium. However, the subscription is available at a discounted price if you purchase it through @PremiumBot as "the payments are not subject to fees from Apple or Google," Telegram says.
Telegram Stories was a highly requested feature, according to Durov. It"s designed to offer an experience similar to Instagram and Snapchat. However, the feature comes with its own tweaks. You can customize the experation date for Telegram Stories from 6 hours to 48 hours or add them to your profile permanently.
All your saved and archived Telegram Stories will appear in the My Stories folder on the app"s settings page. The Telegram Stories feature has a compact UI, offers captions, and dual-camera support to record from both the front and rear cameras at the same time.
Speaking of privacy, you can choose whether your story will be visible to everyone, your contacts, close friends, or a few selected contacts. You can also dodge stories from specific contacts you"re trying to avoid by adding them to the hidden list. Also, channel admins will be able to repost messages as Telegram Stories to get more visibility on the platform.
Via: 9to5Google