Fleets: What You Need To Know About Twitter’s Version Of Snapchat Stories

Twitter allows people to share their thoughts in a quick and easy way called “tweets.” Interestingly, tweets seem permanent. These 280-character posts will stay on the internet for as long as the Twitter user doesn't delete them. This means users with the certain motives can search for a person's tweets from years ago, then use these for whatever purpose they have.

A tweet's permanent nature, as well as the ability that other users have to retweet them, tends to discourage people from making them. The people behind the microblogging site saw that and worked on a way to let users share their thoughts without having to worry about the aforementioned problems. This way is called “Fleets.”

Fleets, The Verge reported, are Twitter's version of Instagram and Snapchat Stories. Like standard tweets, Fleets allow users to share a 280-character post containing thoughts or ideas, and even images, GIFs or videos. Unlike tweets, however, Fleets will only last for 24 hours – the same amount of time that Stories last.

Twitter's head of product, Kayvon Beykpour, noted that while the new feature has some similarities to the Stories other apps offer, it has a “few intentional differences” meant to put the focus on sharing and seeing other's thoughts. Here's how a Fleet works:

In order to post a Fleet, users will need to tap on the plus (+) button that appears on the leftmost end of a new home row of posts. This row, which features the profile photos of those who posted Fleets, is located at the top of the screen.

After tapping on the plus sign, users will be given room to create a post containing up to 280 characters of text, or the other aforementioned elements (images, GIFs, videos). All users need to do after putting in what they want to post is to hit post.

As mentioned, the Fleet will last for 24 hours before disappearing from the internet. This is perfect for those spur-of-the-moment thoughts and ideas that aren't meant to last.

Twitter users who want to reply to a Fleet will have their replies sent as DMs. What's even more interesting is that Fleets can never be retweeted. A Twitter user, however, noted that users can still take screenshots of the Fleets and tweet them instead.