What you need to know
- Following apps like Instagram and WhatsApp, Signal has begun testing Stories.
- Signal found testing the feature in its latest beta.
- The Stories allow users to share images, videos, and texts with friends, which will disappear after 24 hours.
Signal messaging platform has a new feature in the works, which many of us are used to already. Yes, the Stories feature is debuting on the platform and is seemingly prepared for beta testing.
In a Signal Community post, the messaging platform's Android developer Greyson Parrelli announced Signal's new capability. He further confirmed the Stories feature allows users to share images, videos, and texts with friends on Signal. And, as with any other Stories feature from competing messaging apps, the duration of this feature on Signal is also set to 24 hours.
Stories on Signal are said to be end-to-end encrypted similar to Chats on the messaging platform. This new feature also seems to keep the Signal privacy practice at its core, which is good. Parrelli highlights that users are always in control of what or to whom they share the new Stories feature.
For instance, users can share stories with Signal connections that include contacts or anyone with whom they had a one-on-one chat previously. Alternatively, users can select a custom friends list or select Signal groups. "When you share stories to groups, anyone else in that group can view, share, react, and reply to that group story, " Parrelli says in the blog post.
For now, the Stories feature is only available for beta testers. That means if you're a beta tester and sharing stories with a non-beta Signal user, the said feature will not work.
Despite borrowing the feature from other messaging apps, Signal is giving a new option that the competition isn't, i.e., users can totally turn off the Stories if they're uninterested. This relatively prevents users from creating Stories or viewing other people's stories, which appears to be a promising move.
Moreover, Parrelli notes that the Stories feature was the one that Signal users had requested and suggested the most, prompting the platform to focus on getting it to them.
