Twitter launches own version of Instagram stories with 24-hour disappearing post feature

The feature, Fleets, is a take on the term fleeting moments
John Dunne @jhdunne17 November 2020

Twitter is rolling out a feature similar to Instagram Stories and Snapchat where people can share posts that disappear within 24 hours.

The move is a major evolution from the social network’s core purpose, which sees tweets kept on an individual’s profile for all to see unless they proactively decide to delete them.

Fleets – a take on the term fleeting moments – is designed to help users feel more comfortable participating on the platform in a “lower pressure way” without the need to worry about retweets and likes, the firm said.

People can choose to post text, reactions to tweets with the tweet attached, photos or videos, as well as the ability to customise them with background and text options.

The move is a major evolution from the social network’s core purpose
Image by PhotoMIX Company on Pixabay

Followers can reply to Fleets by sending a private Direct Messages, but only if they follow each other or the account holder has their Direct Messages set to open.

Fleets from accounts a person follows will appear along the top their home timeline.

Plans are already in motion to add stickers and live broadcasting.

The tech giant first announced it was testing such a feature in March, with a trial in Brazil, later expanding to Italy, India, and South Korea.

Twitter executives admit the format “may sound familiar”, referring to Snapchat who spearheaded the art of disappearing messages and Instagram which followed suit in 2016 with Stories.

“We’ve learned that some people feel more comfortable joining conversations on Twitter with this ephemeral format, so what they’re saying lives just for a moment in time,” said Twitter’s Joshua Harris, director of design, and Sam Haveson, product manager, in a blog post.

“In the coming days, everyone globally will have Fleets on Twitter for iOS and Android.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in