People Have *Thoughts* About Twitter's New Fleet Feature
If you logged onto Twitter today and did a double-take, you weren't the only one. Twitter is the latest social platform to introduce disappearing posts that just so happen to be accessed via small circles at the top of the app — and they're called Fleets. Look familiar? It's reminiscent (read: exactly like) Instagram's Stories and Snapchat.
"Some of you tell us that Tweeting is uncomfortable because it feels so public, so permanent, and like there’s so much pressure to rack up Retweets and Likes," design director Joshua Harris and product manager Sam Haveson wrote in a blog post.
Fleets disappear after 24 hours and unlike tweets, they don't earn Likes or RTs and there's no way to post a public reply. For now, they're only available on Twitter's mobile platform, so if the new development is triggering some sort of social media trauma, stick to Twitter on your desktop to live in a state of ignorant bliss.
That thing you didn’t Tweet but wanted to but didn’t but got so close but then were like nah.
We have a place for that now—Fleets!
Rolling out to everyone starting today. pic.twitter.com/auQAHXZMfH— Twitter (@Twitter) November 17, 2020
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Twitter/ArianaGrande
Twitter/JLo
Twitter/KimKardashian
Of course, social-savvy celebs are already embracing the new feature (Kim Kardashian West, Miley Cyrus, and Demi Lovato were among the first to use it), but not everyone's embracing Fleets. From the actual name of the feature to the fact that it seems silly to have ephemeral posts on one more social media platform, Twitter users weren't shy about their thoughts.
twitter introducing fleets to remind us of how fleeting life is if we attempt to live without the lord
— Desus Nice (@desusnice) November 17, 2020
“we’re calling them fleets” pic.twitter.com/I3xStYdXe4
— nick usen (@nickusen) November 17, 2020
So Twitter roll out stories like fleets feature globally today!
Meanwhile Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and WhatsApp to Twitter right now..#fleets pic.twitter.com/3mpuzgkBnM— Vishal Verma (@VishalVerma_9) November 17, 2020
Tik Tok copied Vine, one of Twitter’s biggest failures.
Instagram copied Tik Tok, by making Reels.
Twitter copied Instagram, by introducing Stories, which Instagram stole from Snapchat. pic.twitter.com/XzQXNGCUSX— kyle a.b. (@kyalbr) November 17, 2020
Jfc even excel will have stories soon enough pic.twitter.com/BaBRxmtiwh
— Bran (@CryptoBran_) November 17, 2020
Were the people who work at Twitter too young to know Fleets is an enema? pic.twitter.com/h0LAV6Gsa3
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) November 17, 2020
Twitter fleets, explained:
In NYC ‘fleet week’ is an annual event when all the navy ships dock in Manhattan and the city has sex with sailors for a week. Then the ships leave and it’s like it never happened.— eLëni (@eleniZarro) November 17, 2020
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Some users are embracing Fleets, because sometimes it's tough to resist things that are shiny and new.
everyone: i hate the fleets
also everyone:
pic.twitter.com/XSVc8RTKXC— julianna⁷🦋 (@juliannacelinee) November 17, 2020
Users also noticed that there were a few security issues with Fleets. Because users aren't notified if their Fleets posts are retweeted, they could be harnessed for bullying and harassment.
so just to recap, the twitter stories / "fleet" feature:
- shares and links to tweets without alerting the original creator
- allows people who have been blocked to @ them within their fleets
this is a major security issue for users who are vulnerable to harassment. stay safe.— Lane (@spacysapphic) November 17, 2020
What that means is that you can use Fleet to direct your followers to harass someone and there is no way for the target to identify the source of the harassment.
Shut it down, @twitter. pic.twitter.com/BjSSzcz2Q4— Andrew Thaler (@DrAndrewThaler) November 17, 2020
However, Twitter spokeswoman Liz Kelley said that Fleets are subject to the same rules as tweets, including content getting flagged as manipulated media or misinformation about civic processes.
