I initially didn't understand the point of stories in apps like WhatsApp or Snapchat. I never really used any app with such a feature. Three years ago, my messaging application of choice Signal added a stories feature and their implementation makes me think that an instant messaging app like Signal could actually fill the exact use-cases that social media like Facebook are trying (and failing) to fill.
Author here.
Facebook does not really allow you to specify that one post should only be sent to a specific group of people (like this should only be visible to my family, this should only be visible by close friends), the functionality is hidden, it’s not end-to-end encrypted, and it expects you to specify manually the list of recipient each time if it’s something other than just “all friends”.
Facebook also shows you everything in a feed (with algorithmic ordering to make everything worse), instead of sending you to the user’s feed so that you can have all the context.