The Stories format created by Snapchat has ended up making its way through all of today's most popular social networks. And although it was slow, Twitter couldn't resist implementing their own stories.
They are called Fleet, and after a trial period they ended up landing on mobile phones around the world through an update of the social network's app. Now this format of Twitter stories is now available to everyone.
The new Twitter fleets.
What are Twitter fleets?
In principle, the Fleets are nothing more than the way Twitter had to adopt - because saying "copy" sounds ugly - Snapchat and Instagram stories.
It is a new function within the social network, which allows you to publish ephemeral content that disappear after a certain time and that only our followers can see.
As in Instagram, WhatsApp and other platforms, the Twitter fleets appear in a carousel located at the top of the application, where each user's profile pictures, surrounded by a blue circle, represent that those users have posted a new fleet.
How to create a fleet and publish it
Create and publish a Twitter fleet it's as easy as creating an Instagram story or WhatsApp status. Just follow these steps:
- Open the Twitter app on your mobile.
- To create a fleet, tap your profile picture which will appear to the left of the fleet carousel, accompanied by the text "Add".
- Choose the type of fleet you want to create: text, gallery image, photo or video.
- When you're done, tap the "Fleet" button in the top right.
In its initial version, the Twitter Fleet Editor it's not as advanced as the Instagram Stories editor. Controls are not as precise and some settings or functions are missing.
However, we trust that the social network will update the application to introduce improvements to its fleets with which to offer an experience that, at least, is as good as the one we can get with Instagram or Snapchat stories.
6 things you need to know about fleets
Those who are not very familiar with the story format or have started using Fleet for the first time should keep a few things in mind.
- Duration of fleets: as in Instagram, WhatsApp or Snapchat, the published fleets have a duration of 24 hours. After this time, the content will be removed.
- Can you mention other people? Fleets allow you to mention other Twitter users. To do this, you must include text and mention the user mentioned by their username followed by an "@".
- Can tweets be posted to fleets? Tweets can be added to fleets. To do this, tap the «Share» button in the desired tweet and in the options menu tap «Share on a fleet».
- Is it possible to silence other people's fleets? If you want to prevent a specific person's fleets from appearing in your carousel, just long-press on that user's profile picture and tap "Mute". Then choose the option «Deactivate fleets».
- Can you interact with the fleets? You cannot retweet or "like" fleets. They also don't include public responses, although you can send reactions via direct messages from Twitter.
- What if your Twitter account is private? If your tweets are protected, so will fleets and only people who follow you will be able to see it. Additionally, you will be able to see who has visited your fleets.
This is everything you need to know about fleets. As you can see, the experience is undoubtedly very similar to that of the stories of Instagram, WhatsApp and other platforms that have already incorporated this function for some time. Therefore, it will not be very difficult for you to get acquainted with them.
