All About Telegram Stories: Finding, Adding, Deleting

In July 2023, the popular messenger introduced the "Stories" feature in its app, which has long been popular on many other social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram (both services belong to Meta, recognized as extremist in Russia), VKontakte and TikTok. And while the new tool has not yet become widespread and super popular, interest in it has emerged. Let's take a detailed look at the new service.

Telegram Stories: Key Facts

So you opened the messenger app and didn't find the coveted feature. Why are there no stories in Telegram? A reasonable question, the answer to which is contained in the first item in the list of the most important information about the new service:

1. To post stories, you need a premium subscription and update the mobile app to iOS 9.6.4 or Android 9.7.0. The desktop version of Telegram currently only allows you to view stories;
2. Location: stories in Telegram are located above the list of chats and groups next to the search bar. To access them, click on the thumbnails;
3. You can set the storage period for stories to 6, 12, 24 or 48 hours, or save them forever;
4. You can find out who views stories in Telegram;
5. You can post photos and videos taken with the front and rear cameras, as well as use ready-made content from the phone gallery. Deferred posting is also available;
6. You can edit photos and videos, add stickers, emojis and text. Users with a premium subscription can use up to 2048 characters of text;
7. You can configure who will see your stories, including the option to prohibit screenshots;
8. You can get reactions and replies from other users, as well as view viewing statistics.

How to create stories in Telegram?

It's just as easy as on other platforms. And in some sense even easier and there is a good toolkit for working with this feature. So before posting stories in Telegram, do the following:

1. Open the messenger mobile app and make sure you have the latest version installed;
2. Click on the plus next to the story thumbnails at the top above the list of chats and channels;
3. How to record stories in Telegram? Take a photo or video with the camera or select ready-made content from the gallery;
4. Edit the content if necessary, add various elements and text;
5. Set privacy and retention period;
6. Click "Publish Story".

You can also edit stories or change privacy settings after posting them. Which undoubtedly adds variability to this feature compared to competing services.

How to hide stories in Telegram?

Recalling how similar tools work on other platforms, one can imagine a cluttered story field from numerous contacts and a smartphone bursting with notifications. To prevent this from happening, you need to know how to delete stories in Telegram. Here's what we learned:

• Turn off story notifications in the messenger in the "Settings"/"Notifications and Sounds"/"Stories" section and disable the "Always notify" option;
• You can turn off notifications from a specific user via "Settings" or context menu by clicking on the story of the selected contact;
• A radical way to turn off stories in Telegram: if you delete a user from your contacts, their stories will no longer be visible. You can do this via the user profile or "Contacts" menu;

Telegram Stories: Looking to the Future

Like any new feature of the popular Telegram service, Telegram Stories is at the stage of active testing of new features. As of October 2023, the following plans are known to expand the functionality and capabilities of stories:

• in the "near future" it is planned to open up the possibility of posting stories for all users, not just premium subscription holders (however, the date of this event is constantly shifting);
• it is planned to add reposts from Telegram channels to stories to increase reach and subscribers;
• introducing restrictions or bans on reactions and responses in personal chats is under consideration;
• the ability to download Telegram stories for all categories of users is being explored;
• a separate "like" button for stories may be introduced;
• it is planned to add features such as attaching music, polls and quizzes;
• additional tools: filters and masks will be available to improve creativity;
• the possibility of publishing stories in Telegram for channels and communities is under consideration.

However, the implementation of these plans depends on the decisions of the Telegram team and the reactions of test groups to certain innovations. As well as the financial return of the new feature.