Twitter Fleets: What is it, how it works and who all shall get it

Fleets is a quick way to express thoughts using multimedia or just simple text

Twitter introduced on June 9 a feature named Fleets for Android and iOS platforms. Inspired by the Stories feature on Instagram and Facebook, Fleets is a quick way to express thoughts using multimedia or text. Thoughts shared on Fleets disappear automatically after 24 hours.

Let’s look at what Fleets offer, how it works and who all shall get it:

Twitter Fleets: Story-ies behind it

Twitter is about people posting their views, engaging with others by commenting on a post, 'liking’ it or showing support by retweeting a post. Twitter is public by design, but some users may not feel comfortable with that because their tweets anybody can see and reply them.

To enable people to express their thoughts without the anxiety of how others would take it, Twitter introduced Fleets on March 4 in Brazil. The Fleets feature seems inspired by Stories feature on Instagram and Facebook. It allows people to share thoughts in the form of text, multimedia and multimedia with text on it. Though the Fleets are visible to everyone, it disappears after 24 hours and do not get retweets, likes, or public replies -- people can only react to your Fleets with direct messages. Moreover, instead of showing up in people’s timelines, Fleets are viewed by tapping on your avatar.

How Twitter Fleets works

If you have posted Stories on Instagram and Facebook, it would be easy for you to know how the Fleets work. For those who have not, the Twitter for Android and iOS platforms now show a new strip on the top with your avatar, followed by tiny circular photo-icons of people you follow. You can swipe from right to left to see who all have shared Fleets recently.

To see the Fleets, tap on any of the photo-icons of people you follow and scroll upwards to see more Fleets from the same account, if they have shared multiple thoughts in a day.

To post the Fleets, tap on your avatar and write down the thought. You can also add photo and GIF to the fleets. Once done, click on ‘Fleet’ and the thought is posted. You can see your own Fleets by tapping on your avatar and swiping down. You can add multiple Fleets by following the same process, and your entire Fleets would show up at one place that can be explored by simply swiping up and down.

Who shall get it and when

Fleet is not a testing feature and it is rolling out in a phased manner. It will be available for everyone in India in the coming days in updated app versions.