VentureTech

Twitter rolls out its version of "stories" with "Fleets"

Ben Barak
Ben Barak
|
Nov 17 2020, 10:05 pm
Twitter rolls out its version of "stories" with "Fleets"

We’ve all been there: you jot out the perfect tweet, an immaculately crafted spec of expression within a 280-character limit. Your finger is about to crash-land on that big oh-so-tempting blue button, releasing your personal wisdom into the cosmos, and then you… hesitate. Because, once it’s out there, it’s out there.

Well, not anymore.

With Twitter’s new launch of “Fleets,” a feature rolling out globally on Tuesday (it was previously tested in Brazil and Italy, among others), your tweets can now be out there for a mere 24 hours. And not just tweets — Fleets allows you to post a simple blurb of text, a video, or a photo as well. So next time you want to tweet something but also kinda don’t, you can just, well, fleet it.

“Twitter’s purpose is to serve the public conversation,” the company said, “but some of you tell us that Tweeting is uncomfortable because it feels so public, so permanent, and like there’s so much pressure to rack up Retweets and Likes… Today, we’re launching Fleets so everyone can easily join the conversation in a new way – with their fleeting thoughts.”

The name, we assume, comes from the word “fleeting” – meaning “passing swiftly,” according to Merriam-Webster. A rather appropriate name for the purposes of this feature.

The new fleeture—sorry, ahem, *feature—is reminiscent of Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook stories.

And many Twitter users noticed that too (“Snapchat” was trending on Twitter at the time of this writing) along with some other mixed reactions…

Ben BarakBen Barak
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