Like Instagram, Facebook and so many others, Signal is hopping aboard the Stories bandwagon. The privacy-focused messaging app began beta testing an ephemeral Stories characteristic this week. Users can share movies, photos and text-based messages with their buddies. Stories will vanish after 24 hours.

As with the remainder of the platform, Signal’s Stories have end-to-end encryption. Users can select who to share them with. Along with teams and customized buddies lists, you could choose to share a narrative with all your connections (your contacts and anybody else you’ve spoken with one-on-one). If you choose to put up a narrative to a bunch, others can react, reply to and share it.

For now, the one individuals who will see Stories are different beta testers. If you do not wish to see Stories in Signal, you’ll be able to change them off within the settings. This will forestall you from posting Stories of your individual, although.

It stays to be seen whether or not Stories may help Signal to get individuals spending extra time within the app and even to usher in new customers. Instagram famously aped one in every of Snapchat’s most-used options with its tackle Stories. They’re now a core a part of the Instagram expertise. Not each platform that has tried Stories has caught with it, although. In 2021, Twitter and LinkedIn each ditched their Stories options after lower than a 12 months.