Twitter on Tuesday introduced a new sharing feature worldwide called “fleets.” Users can share photos, text or even repost tweets in posts that vanish after 24 hours.
The fleets feature can be seen at the top of the timeline and are only available via mobile apps. Intentions to create a desktop feature hasn’t been made known by the company yet.
Twitter encourages users to use the ephemeral feature — which refers to the phrase “fleeting moments” — to share content they wouldn’t necessarily tweet.
That thing you didn’t Tweet but wanted to but didn’t but got so close but then were like nah.
We have a place for that now—Fleets!
Rolling out to everyone starting today. pic.twitter.com/auQAHXZMfH
— Twitter (@Twitter) November 17, 2020
“The main reason for this is that it creates a lower-pressure way for people to join the conversation,” said Joshua Harris, a company director of design, noting that there are no public likes or comments on fleets.
Sharing a “hot take” might be easier on fleets, he explained, and could spark a one-on-one conversation afterward.
This idea isn’t a novel one. The feature is commonly referred to as “stories,” and Snapchat pioneered it in 2013. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube — even LinkedIn and Pinterest all added similar features to their platforms. It’s become somewhat of a meme.
Fleets initially will have fewer features than the social network’s competitors. There will not be a way to target different followers with your fleets and users won’t get a notification if one is screenshotted.