Twitter launches its own stories

Last Tuesday, Twitter announced the global launch of Fleets—a feature for temporary tweets that it first unveiled earlier this year and tested across various markets worldwide.The company hopes that Fleets will reduce the pressure associated with tweets and allow users to express themselves more freely. The feature is also intended to alleviate concerns about likes and retweets."Through our tests in Brazil, Italy, India, and South Korea, we learned a great deal. Fleets helps people feel more comfortable joining conversations. People engaged more on Twitter with Fleets," explained Design Director Joshua Harris and Product Manager Sam Havson.At its core, Fleets is a clone of Stories, borrowed from Instagram and Snapchat. Users can reply to other users' Fleets via Direct Messages, similar to Instagram. Each Fleet will disappear after 24 hours. Twitter has stated that it will also introduce stickers and the ability to go live in the future.Nevertheless, users can still save what others post (for posterity, so to speak)—and nothing prevents sharing Fleets through traditional tweet channels using screenshots. Moreover, Fleets can even be downloaded after the 24-hour expiration via the API.Fleets can be viewed in any way one chooses, but this option will change the format of communication on the platform, just as Stories did on Instagram. It will be interesting to see what purposes U.S. President Donald Trump will use Fleets for.