Twitter is adding a new feature that it hopes will engage more users.
On Wednesday, the social media platform will begin testing “fleets,” a stories feature that will allow you to post photos, videos, and text that disappear after 24 hours, BuzzFeed News reports. While the stories capability is new to Twitter, it’s not new to users at large.
After Snapchat invented stories in 2013, Facebook built the same feature into Instagram in 2016. “They deserve all the credit,” Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom said at the time, referring to Snapchat. Facebook itself then adopted the feature and included it on its other products, like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. YouTube, Netflix, Tinder, and LinkedIn soon followed suit. However, Twitter remained an outlier.
Now, Twitter is testing fleets—a mash-up of “fleeting” and tweets”—in Brazil, according to a Twitter blog post. “People have told us in early research that because Fleets disappear, they feel more willing to share casual, everyday thoughts,” Twitter said on Wednesday. “We hope that people who don’t usually feel comfortable Tweeting use Fleets to share musings about what’s on their mind.”
Fleets can’t be retweeted or liked, but in addition to text, users will be able to include GIFs, videos, and photos. According to BuzzFeed, Twitter is rolling the feature out this week after reports that activist investor Elliot Management acquired an approximate 4 percent stake in the company and is looking to oust Jack Dorsey as CEO.
