After the success of the Stories format across Snapchat (that actually made them famous), Instagram, Facebook and even LinkedIn(?!), it seems that Twitter is also working on building a new Twitter story like feature called: Twitter Fleets, that will be similar to the other ephemeral types of content.
So what’s different for the Twitter Fleets?
First of all, the name. Which is not Stories, but Fleets. A more appropriate name and also one that stands-out in the online.
Unlike the tweets, the Twitter Fleets will not receive any likes, comments or retweets – meaning that they can only be viewed, but one can not interact with the content in any way. This is also a different feature than the rest of the Stories format around. A similitude is that they all disappear after exactly 24 hours they have been published.
In order to watch someone’s Fleet, one must visit the profile they are interested in and tap to watch it. The Twitter profile must be public in order for everyone to see the Fleet, even if they are not followed by that certain person – let’s say this would be a great opportunity for real-time marketing and create buzz. Or this could also apply to celebrities as well.
Another difference Twitter brings with Fleet is that they will not be found within the network, search or the moments’ tab. And it also cannot be shared or embedded. This means that what’s seen on Twitter stays on Twitter. And it is available only for the mobile app.
The first ones ever to test Twitter’s ephemeral content are the Brazilians.
As it is not the final version of the feature, they might encounter some bugs, but hey! this is what the testing period means.
How will the Twitter Fleets look like?
The testers will see their round profile picture surrounded by a blue circle, meaning there has been a Fleet uploaded. Actually, this is a similarity with the other social network’s stories. Brazilian users will be able to add photos, videos and also GIFs to the Fleets for the others to see. The length of the video will be up to 2 minutes and this is also something new from the other Stories format.
What do you think of Twitter’s move? Will this new “Stories for Twitter” feature be a successful one?
See also: Can you edit a tweet?
