Snapchat’s Stories will never come to Twitter? Think again! That’s right, the infamous yet very popular feature that marked the previous decade is coming to the social network. As announced on company’s blog, March 4 of 2020 the social network confirmed they will be testing the feature in Brazil and they will be called “Fleets.”
The word “Fleet” for most of us comes to signify as a group of ships sailing together. However, in this particular scenario it will be about users engaged in the same activity.
Fleets will essentially be text, video or pics that will disappear after 24 hours. The feature seems like a novelty, but the integration of it will start to diminish the newsworthiness reputation of Twitter’s news agencies perhaps.
What does the enhancement of Fleets do for Twitter?
After reading the trends section of Twitter when the announcement was made, some Twitter users wasted no time to express their sentiment around this upcoming change.
As the above user expressed, he prefers to have access to the edit option. However, it is clear the above user is not on board with the change the platform has decided to try out.
The impression of Fleets reported by the Nieman Journalism Lab and Variety
According to the Niemanlab dot org report, there is genius behind Stories. In addition, it goes on to add that this feature is visual, temporary and disappear after 24 hours. They are casual and personal, which will start to blur the lines with professional news organizations.
On the other hand, the distinction will not be easy to make when a journalist attempts to disseminate Professional Tweets™ and this functionality of tossing updates. The feature goes against the notion of real-time and breaking-news since it will serve a small group of people or followers.
There is another downside to this Fleets business. That is that now recorded content will not be store forever. Well, I mean to say it will not be visible or searchable. The following quote is excerpt from the article about this thought:
“For instance: Every single thing you have ever tweeted is, by default, stored and searchable forever. That is insane if you think of a tweet as a digital equivalent to a human conversation. No one is following you around your city all day, recording every word you speak to put in some eternal audio panopticon. And yet that’s what Twitter does.”
Variety confirmed that Twitter’s move toward Fleets had more to do with a survey they conducted. Perhaps surprising to learn users would be more comfortable “sharing everyday thoughts” if they disappear after 24 hours.”
What is important to note is Twitter has always had its own narrative and trends. In other words, when it came to discussing certain topics, issues or news it was its own echo chamber and deviated from the public’s consensus about something. That is what made Twitter special and drastically different.
The arrival of Fleets makes Twitter a late adopter of Snapchat’s “Stories” feature. Snapchat came into the social media game in 2011 and launched this popular option for users in 2013, which was launched on Instagram and followed by every Facebook app or product to date. This includes YouTube as well.
Takeaways
It is uncertain what Fleets will do for Twitter. The platform that revolutionized live reporting with its 180 characters, and then doubled to 280 characters in 2018.
Twitter has changed the world. As a Mashable analysis asserts they changed the following:
- Politics
- Science
- Business
- Journalism
- Celebrity culture
Let’s remember the Arab Spring that involved Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Libya. All of these featured the Twitter revolution and none of these countries would ever be the same.
The exchange of information and flow of real-time news was the staple of Twitter. Is Fleets going to alter the order and diminish Twitter’s swag? Time will tell.
Anthony Carranza 