Twitter has become one of the last major social media platforms to copy Snapchat’s 24-hour disappearing type content, calling it ‘Fleets’. They are currently testing Fleets in Brazil and it will work differently from regular tweets, that is, users will not be able to retweet, like or publicly comment on them.
In a blog article, Twitter explained how a large percent of its user base feels uncomfortable with the public nature of tweets. Pretty much anyone could go through a user’s account and bring up tweets from their timeline. This has made a lot of users nervous about tweeting everyday thoughts that could one day be used against them.
Fleets is technically still public, that is, it can be seen by anyone during the first 24 hours of it being posted. The difference being Twitter will not push it into Search or Moments or even let it be embedded in an external website. Twitter conducted a survey in which users shared that they would be more comfortable sharing momentary and everyday thoughts if it disappeared 24 hours later.
For testers in Brazil, there will be rounded bubble-shaped profile icons at the top of their timeline in the mobile app. The first bubble will contain the user’s own profile photo where they can create their own Fleet, followed by bubbles that contain Fleets of the accounts they follow. The Fleet composer is extremely bare bones at the moment, with a text-centric nature. Users can also add photos, GIFs and videos (up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds in length) to the Fleet and share them.
Twitter’s Fleets is currently being tested only Brazil for both iOS and Android mobile Twitter users. Twitter has stated that they will consider rolling out the feature to other regions based on user feedback that they receive during its testing phase.