After announcing the global launch of its new feature ‘Fleets’ and testing it in different markets, Twitter is now providing users all around the world access to Fleets. Fleets is a disappearing story feature of Twitter and can be found on top of the Twitter timeline in a row of Stories-like bubbles.
That thing you didn’t Tweet but wanted to but didn’t but got so close but then were like nah.
— Twitter (@Twitter) November 17, 2020
We have a place for that now—Fleets!
Rolling out to everyone starting today. pic.twitter.com/auQAHXZMfH
Twitter's purpose behind releasing Fleets was to help users express more casual thoughts and feelings via its Stories-like options instead of Tweets, which would also save them from getting in trouble for saying something profound.
Twitter also shared the feedback it received for Fleets from users in India, South Korea, Italy, and Brazil. The company said that users felt more comfortable engaging in conversations and communicated more frequently via Fleets.
“Those new to Twitter found Fleets to be an easier way to share what’s on their mind. Because they disappear from view after a day, Fleets helped people feel more comfortable sharing personal and casual thoughts, opinions, and feelings.”, wrote design director Joshua Harris and product manager Sam Haveson in a blog post.
Fleets is basically a clone of Instagram and Snapchat’s popular Story feature, as it offers pretty much the same functionalities: sharing text, responding to others’ Fleets with text or emojis, and posting videos; all of which would disappear after 24 hours, a typical feature of Stories.
Responding to someone’s Fleet would automatically initiate your DM conversation with them, just how Instagram and Snapchat’s Stories work.
Twitter revealed that it will also introduce live broadcast and sticker options to Fleets in the future.
A few things that Twitter has made clear about Fleets is that users will not receive a notification if someone screenshots their Fleet and that if any of your followers doesn’t see your Fleet immediately at the top of the timeline, they would be able to view it from your profile directly.
One way that Fleets would be particularly useful for Twitter and its user community is that it will help divide the sheer volume of opinions that get trafficked on Twitter almost every minute of the day, into more digestible formats.
However, some users may take unnecessary advantage of Fleets and violate its usage, for which Twitter may soon introduce some moderation policy.
Twitter has already officially rolled out Fleets, so the feature shall be available to every Android and iOS user in the coming days.
