Who sees your story, and how long it lasts

Your story is visible to your contacts only, for 24 hours. After that it is deleted automatically — you don't need to remove it.

The audience is not configurable: a story always goes to your contacts, not to followers and not to the public. Someone can follow you and see all your public posts yet never see a story, because following and being a contact are different relationships. If you want something seen more widely, post it to the feed instead.

Your contacts get a notification when you post a story, so posting one is a real signal to them, not a silent addition.

There is no viewer list. Story views are not recorded, so nobody can see who watched your story, and nobody can see that you watched theirs.

Stories don't have replies — you can't answer a story from inside the story viewer.

You can delete your own story before it expires from the story itself, and you can report someone else's story with the standard report option.