Signal launches ‘Stories’ with end-to-end encryption and opt-out settings

The privacy-focused messaging app Signal is adding a popular social feature known to many as Stories. The functionality launches with settings that allow users to choose who can see their posts, and the company assured that Stories would remain private as well.

Signal may be a little late to the party as Stories have been released on various messaging and social media apps for years. But the company said Stories has been one of the most requested features for the app.

Signal said in a blog post on Monday that Stories “have a natural place in any messaging app” since they allow users to share fun details and moments in their daily lives without resulting in a notification. “People use them, people want them, so we’re providing a way to do stories privately. And without having to wade through a sea of ads,” Signal added.

Like the messages exchanged through the app, Signal Stories will be protected with end-to-end encryption. This means 24-hour posts will only be visible to contacts or groups with whom users choose to share their Stories.

Signal said there would be several options for choosing an audience for Stories on its app. Users can choose to share these posts with all their Signal connections, which include contacts, users with whom they have an existing conversation, and users from whom they have accepted a message request.

However, people can also create a custom story that will be shared with manually selected contacts. A story can also be exclusively shared with members of an existing Signal group chat. And there is also an option to hide these limited-time posts from specific contacts. Users can customize their Stories sharing options through the app’s Settings menu.

Signal will also let users disable view receipts for Stories. This means users can view a contact’s Story posts without letting them know.

The Signal app is primarily known as a private messaging app that has been promising users it is not keeping the data of their users. So if others want to keep using Signal just for messaging, they can ultimately opt out of the Stories feature through Settings > Stories > Turn off stories.

The Stories features are now rolling out on Android and iOS and will be available in version 6.0. But the company said it would also be available on Signal’s desktop app at a later time.

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash