Twitter rolls out Snapchat-inspired disappearing posts

Twitter has unveiled  a Snapchat-inspired feature that allows users to share posts that disappear within 24 hours.

Fleets — a take on the term fleeting moments — is designed to help users feel more comfortable participating on the platform in a "lower pressure way" without the need to worry about retweets and likes, Twitter said.

Users will be able to post text, reactions to tweets with the tweet attached, photos, or videos, as well as the ability to customise the background, as part of a Fleet.

Followers can then reply to the Fleets through direct messages, which will only be allowed in the event that both people follow one another. 

The feature represents a shift in how the site will be used in the future. To date, tweets have been kept on a users’ profile unless specifically deleted.

That thing you didn’t Tweet but wanted to but didn’t but got so close but then were like nah.

We have a place for that now—Fleets!

Rolling out to everyone starting today. pic.twitter.com/auQAHXZMfH

— Twitter (@Twitter) November 17, 2020

It is similar to the ‘Stories’ tool that has been rolled out by Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Fleets will appear at the top of a user’s home feed much in the same way it does on the other sites.

The tech giant began trialling the feature in March in Brazil. It later went on to expand to Italy, India, and South Korea.

Executives admitted that the feature may “sound familiar”.

“We’ve learned that some people feel more comfortable joining conversations on Twitter with this ephemeral format, so what they’re saying lives just for a moment in time,” said Twitter’s Joshua Harris, director of design, and Sam Haveson, product manager, in a blog post.

“In the coming days, everyone globally will have Fleets on Twitter for iOS and Android.”

It comes after Twitter engaged in a anti-misinformation campaign throughout the US election. The social network labelled a number of President Trump’s tweets as being “disputed”.

A number of Trump supporters have moved away from the mainstream platforms to sites like Parler, Gab, and MeWe, over complaints around censorship.​