Telegram Stories adds music, reactions, and Channel stories that users pay for

Andrew Romero | Sep 22 2023 - 8:28 am PT

Telegram’s Channel system is getting a big update, complete with the ability to post stories – just as long as Premium and paying followers give them the ability via “boosts.” The update also gives users the ability to post stories with reactions and custom audio.

Channels have been around in Telegram for quite some time now, allowing users to follow certain entities like celebrities or organizations. For Premium users, that caps out at 1,000 followable Channels – an impressive number if you can follow that many.

Now, a new update brings some interesting features for those that run Channels, and even the users that don’t. Channels now have the ability to post stories like regular users. In order to do so, a Channels followers must give them boosts. Premium users get a “free” boost and if a Channel is gifted enough of them, they level up. The more levels are gained, the more stories can be posted in a day.

This essentially means that the most popular Channels will have unlimited story-posting power going forward. Fortunately, you can fine-tune how much of this spam you see on your feed.

With that, stories can now include Telegram reactions – for both Channels and users. Reactions need to be placed on the story in the editing process for users to be able to interact with them. With that, they can just tap the reactions on the story for the original poster to see results and interaction.

Telegram is also bringing custom audio to stories. This can be in the form of a pre-recorded track or voice recording. As long as it’s an audio file, it can be added to stories for a background track.

But perhaps one of the best additions is view-once media in true Snapchat style. This is an easier feature to use than self-destruct, as it has a special button clearly seen right before it’s sent. Screenshots and saving will not work for view-once media.