JAKARTA - Signal now looks like Snapchat and Instagram because it just added Stories features. Now, Stories are available to everyone on Signal, users of the encrypted instant messaging service can create and share images, videos, and text that automatically expires after 24 hours.
This feature was first announced last month at the Signal community forum, where it was initially available to beta Signal testers.
Now, the feature is rolling out on the latest version of Signal (v6.0) for all Android and iOS users today. Meanwhile, feature support for the desktop will be coming soon.
Signal says that like everything available in its app, Stories is also end-to-end encrypted and will only be visible to people the user chooses to share.
Users can share with everyone in their contacts using the app, along with anyone who has been spoken to privately or whose message request is received.
In addition, similar to the Close Friends Instagram option, Signal Stories can also create special Stories that will only be available for select viewers.
Then, users can also share stories with existing groups. This means that everyone in that group will be able to see what users share, even those who have never interacted in individual chats.
Signal Stories will disappear automatically 24 hours after sharing, but users can also manually delete them if they want to delete them quickly.
Stories features are common on social media, such as Snapchat, Instagram and even WhatsApp rival messaging services already have them first. However, the company claims Stories are one of the most common feature requests from its global users.
People use it, people want it, so we provide a way to create Stories privately. And without having to navigate the oceans of advertising," said community writer Signal Nina Berman in a blog post announcing the feature as quoted by The Verge, Wednesday, November 9.
Finally, for users who don't want to view other users' Stories or create and share them themselves, they can disable the feature by going to Settings click Stories and selecting Turn off stories.
Signal will not notify any contacts or friends that users have chosen not to watch their Stories.
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