Twitter launches its own version of Stories, calls it Fleets

Because they're fleeting, get it?
By Stan Schroeder  on 
Twitter launches its own version of Stories, calls it Fleets
Tired of tweeting? Try fleeting. Credit: Twitter

Twitter's got a new feature, and it'll probably sound familiar.

It's called Fleets, a new tool that lets you write text, post photos, videos, or add earlier tweets into a little visual info-nugget that disappears after 24 hours.

So, pretty much exactly the same as Instagram Stories, which themselves are a rip-off of Snapchat Stories. Frankly, we're surprised it took Twitter this long to launch this.

The feature is rolling out globally, starting Tuesday, so it may not be available to you right away. It should be on everyone's Twitter for iOS and Android "in the coming days," Twitter says.

Twitter started testing Fleets back in March 2020 in several countries, including Brazil, Italy, India, and South Korea, and the feedback was probably good enough for the company to introduce them globally. "Because they disappear from view after a day, Fleets helped people feel more comfortable sharing personal and casual thoughts, opinions, and feelings," the company said in a press release.

Aside from their ephemeral nature, Fleets are different from tweets in other ways. They don't allow retweets, likes, or replies, but you can reply to them in the form of Direct Messages. The idea, according to Twitter group product manager Mo Aladham is for users to use Fleets to share "casual, everyday thoughts." That's opposed to the deep, structured conversation you typically get on Twitter, we guess.

Related Video: How to permanently delete your social media

Stan Schroeder
Stan Schroeder
Senior Editor

Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.


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