The developer of the encrypted messaging app, Signal, announced today, Monday, the launch of the Stories feature for all its users on the Android and iOS platforms.
The official launch comes a few weeks after it began testing the feature with a select group of users, and Signal plans to launch the Stories feature for users of its desktop application.
Similar to Stories on other platforms, Signal Stories allow users to create and share images, videos, and texts, and then disappear 24 hours after they are posted. Signal assures that Stories, as with everything else in their app, are fully encrypted with “end-to-end” encryption.
Signal allows its users to choose who can view stories, with the ability to manually hide stories from specific people. You can also choose to share Stories with a small subset of users by creating custom stories, or sharing them with existing group chats.
Similar to the Read Messages or Receive View Indicators feature in conversations, users can choose to let others know they’ve seen Stories, and they can also see who’s seen their Stories. This feature can be turned on or off from the settings menu.
According to Signal, the Stories feature was among the most requested features by users, so I decided to add it to the app. “Stories have emerged to perform these and other specific functions in the broader communications landscape, and many of us have incorporated them as a way we communicate with each other,” it said in a blog post. It added, “This is why it has a natural place in any messaging app, and that includes: Signal. People use it, and they want it, so we provide a way to create stories privately. And without having to wade through a sea of ads.”
Because Signal understands that some users will not welcome the new Stories feature, it has given them the option to turn it off in Settings, so they neither post nor see any Stories in the app.
It is worth noting that the Signal service is one of the latecomers in supporting the stories feature, after the Snapchat application contributed to its popularity, other applications over the past years began adding it to their applications and services, starting with Instagram, then Facebook, then WhatsApp, then Tik Tok. , Twitter, and even the business social network: LinkedIn.
The Signal app for Android can be downloaded from the Google Play Store, and for iOS from the App Store. The application for desktop operating systems can also be downloaded from the service‘s official website.
