Telegram is introducing Stories, the popular Snapchat, WhatsApp and Instagram-like feature that lets users share photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Monday announced the messaging platform is rolling out Stories beginning in July.

“For years, our users have been asking us to implement Stories in Telegram. More than half of all feature requests that we receive are related to Stories. Initially, we were against this since Stories are already everywhere,” Durov said in an update on his channel.

Telegram Stories will give users the ability to define who can see each of their stories; everyone, contacts only, contacts with exceptions, a few selected contacts, or a list of close friends.

Users will also be able to post photos and videos taken by the front and the rear cameras simultaneously with Telegram’s dual camera support.

A feature that stands out from WhatsApp Statuses and Instagram Stories is that Telegram Stories will have the ability to choose when a story expires – in 6, 12, 24, or 48 hours – or permanently display stories on one's profile page, with individual privacy settings for each.

“Once we launch the ability to repost messages from channels to stories, going viral on Telegram will become a lot easier,” said Durov.

“Following our internal tests of Stories, even the skeptics on our team started to appreciate this feature. We can no longer imagine Telegram without it,” he added.