Telegram, top WhatsApp-rival and a popular instant messaging app with over 800 million monthly active users, has unveiled an array of new features to enhance its story-sharing capabilities.
The highlight of this update is the introduction of Stories for Channels, along with View-once Media, Reactions, and Music in Stories.
Stories for Channels: Telegram users can now grant their favourite channels the ability to post stories through a feature called Boosts. Every Telegram Premium user receives one boost that they can assign to any channel. As channels accumulate more boosts, they level up, enabling their admins to post one additional story per day to subscribers’ story feeds.
Boosts are transferrable but remain on the channel until users choose to move them elsewhere. Channels can request boosts from their subscribers using a special link, making engagement crucial for keeping stories alive. Users can obtain the boost link for a specific channel and track the number of boosts needed by navigating to Channel Info > More > Statistics > Boosts. Additionally, achieving level 10 grants a channel increased resistance to trolls and unlocks unique admin skins.
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In the future, boosts will unlock additional features for channels, including custom reactions, emoji statuses, and custom backgrounds.
Reaction Stickers in Stories: Both users and channels can now give reactions to their stories with stickers. Channels can display reaction counters, showing how many people chose each emotion in response to their stories. Users can add a reaction sticker by tapping the icon in the sticker panel and selecting an emoji from a wide range of options. Premium subscribers can also use their emojis and can add up to five reaction stickers per story.
Music in Stories: Users can now add audio files from their devices into photo and video stories, enabling them to create customised soundtracks and narration. To use this feature, users need to tap ‘Audio’ in the sticker panel, select a file, and adjust the track. In video stories, users can keep the original sound as well as place their added audio track at any point.
View-once Media: Telegram has improved its self-destructing media feature. Users can now choose the duration of visibility for photos or videos in one-on-one chats, ranging from View Once to 30 seconds. Once the recipient opens view-once media, it is permanently deleted from the chat. Screenshots and saving the media are disabled for view-once content.
New Login Alerts: Telegram now sends notifications to all a user’s devices whenever someone logs into their account for improved security. Users can review the devices with access to their messages and add an extra layer of protection through Two-Step Verification.
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