Fleets trialled in Brazil to remove some of the anxieties that ‘hold people back from talking’, company says

This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Twitter is testing tweets in Brazil that disappear after 24 hours, similar to the stories feature by Facebook’s photo-sharing app Instagram.

Called “fleets”, the vanishing messages are viewed by tapping on a user’s profile picture, and people can react to them only with direct messages, Kayvon Beykpour, the company’s product lead said on Twitter.

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Beykpour said Twitter was “working to create new capabilities that address some of the anxieties that hold people back from talking on Twitter”.

“Every day, people come to Twitter to see what’s happening. One of the unique things about Twitter is that ‘what’s happening’ is fueled by people sharing their thoughts openly, through tweets. But sharing your thoughts publicly can be intimidating!” he said.

Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) People often tell us that they don’t feel comfortable Tweeting because Tweets can be seen and replied to by anybody, feel permanent and performative (how many Likes & Retweets will this get!?). Many of us can probably empathize with this: https://t.co/LW2xWlctZi

The move comes as the social media company is looking to make its platform more user-friendly and bring in more people through measures such as allowing people to follow topics and by trying to clean up abusive content.

Late last year, Twitter launched a feature for users to hide certain replies on their tweets.

“We’re hoping that fleets can help people share the fleeting thoughts that they would have been unlikely to tweet,” Beykpour said.