Twitter launches its own version of Stories, calls it Fleets

Twitter's got a new feature, and it'll probably sound familiar.

It's called Fleets, a new tool that lets you write text, post photos, videos, or add earlier tweets into a little visual info-nugget that disappears after 24 hours.

So, pretty much exactly the same as Instagram Stories, which themselves are a rip-off of Snapchat Stories. Frankly, we're surprised it took Twitter this long to launch this.

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The feature is rolling out globally, starting Tuesday, so it may not be available to you right away. It should be on everyone's Twitter for iOS and Android "in the coming days," Twitter says.

SEE ALSO: Twitter says retweets change helped slow the spread of election misinformation

Twitter started testing Fleets back in March 2020 in several countries, including Brazil, Italy, India, and South Korea, and the feedback was probably good enough for the company to introduce them globally. "Because they disappear from view after a day, Fleets helped people feel more comfortable sharing personal and casual thoughts, opinions, and feelings," the company said in a press release.

Aside from their ephemeral nature, Fleets are different from tweets in other ways. They don't allow retweets, likes, or replies, but you can reply to them in the form of Direct Messages. The idea, according to Twitter group product manager Mo Aladham is for users to use Fleets to share "casual, everyday thoughts." That's opposed to the deep, structured conversation you typically get on Twitter, we guess.

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