From Snapchat to Instagram, to WhatsApp, Stories have become an essential part of our social media experience. But one major platform has been missing out on all the fun, until today. Twitter announced on Wednesday that they have begun testing their own version of Stories called “Fleets“, exclusively available in Brazil.
According to Twitter Product Manager Mo Al Adham, some users of the platform “feel insecure to Tweet because Tweets are public, permanent and exhibit public engagement counts (likes and Retweets).” The new feature is designed for you to share your “fleeting thoughts”, hence the name.
Fleets are for you to share your ideas and momentary opinions. These posts disappear after 24 hours and have no Retweets, likes or public comments.
Al Adham, Twitter Product Blog
The layout is very similar to Instagram’s feature, lining the top of your screen with different profile bubbles to tap on.
But unlike Instagram or Snapchat Stories, Fleets are designed to be primarily text-based. Although users can share pictures, videos, and GIFs, Adham clarifies that Fleets are meant to be “like Tweets”.
Twitter is clearly hoping to increase its relatively low engagement numbers using this feature.
“Last year, as its monthly active users numbers stagnated, Twitter stopped reporting those numbers, but they hovered around 300 million at that time. Facebook, by comparison, has 2.5 billion monthly users.
Peter Kafka, Vox
Whether or not this feature will succeed in getting new users onto the platform remains to be seen. But for those of us who already use Twitter, a story feature is an overdue but welcomed addition to the platform. The feature is currently available only in Brazil so everyone else will have to wait to post their first Fleet.