Since 2006, Twitter has only allowed one type of post – a message, with a maximum of 280 characters, which may or may not have an audiovisual attachment. The message can then be deleted if the user does not want to keep it visible, but the social network may be about to change the system. In South America, the company began testing a new type of publication, this time more ephemeral, such as stories, in which a message has a useful life of 24 hours.
"Twitter is for talking about things that interest you," said Mo Aladham, product manager on Twitter. "However, some of you have told us that you feel uncomfortable posting tweets because they are public, permanent and accountable (retweets, likes, responses). We want you to be able to keep your conversations in other ways, with less pressure and more control – in addition to tweets and direct messages. that is why today, in Brazil, we are going to start testing fleets, a new way to start conversations from your most fleeting thoughts (fleeting, in english) ", explained Aladham in communicated.
To create a fleet, you have to click on a cone that appears on a new line to be added to your timeline. From there you can create posts with up to 280 characters of text, add photos, GIFs or videos. The post will behave like a tweet, with the exception that it cannot be liked or retweeted by anyone.
It is possible to respond to fleets with a reaction, which is always expressed through an emoji. Text responses will be sent by direct message. And it is important to underline that fleets will always disappear within 24 hours.
Twitter has been working in this format for about a year. There is a clear intention to use it to attract part of the users who migrated to competing platforms, where the ephemerality of the contents is a variable of success. It is also important to realize that this system encourages the sharing of more casual and disposable messages, or even the latter, in case the user does not want to see it forever on his wall.
Fleets are already being tested internally, among employees, in Brazil.
