Fleets: Twitter’s new ephemeral tweets disappear in 24 hours

Twitter is getting into the disappearing messaging game. The company on Wednesday announced a new experimental feature dubbed “Fleets” it’s currently testing.

“Fleets are for you to share your ideas and momentary opinions,” the company said in a blog post.

“These posts disappear after 24 hours and have no Retweets, likes or public comments.”

Those who post Fleets can also “include videos, GIFs or photos in them” as well as text.

“If you want to reply to a Fleet, click on it to send a Direct Message (DM) or emoji, and continue this conversation on your DMs,” Twitter added.

The feature hits iOS and Android apps in Brazil this week, but Twitter hasn’t ruled out the possibility of the feature making its way to other markets in the coming months.

Twitter has noted that users feel more “comfortable sharing everyday thoughts” using the format, but while that sounds good on paper it could introduce more abuse and spam issues for the platform.

Presumably, the firm will have to iron out the kinks first before pushing ahead with what will be a pseudo-Snapchat competitor.

Feature image: Shereesa Moodley/Memeburn