Twitter introduces Stories, names it Fleets

Followed by the acquisition of story template maker Chroma Labs, Twitter introduced Stories on the platform, now available in India.

Co-founded by Boomerang inventor John Barnett, Chroma Labs has pioneered expressive and visual templates and after being acquired by Twitter in February; Twitter has now rolled out Stories on the platform.

Users can also submit their Stories by mentioning @twitterstories or the hashtag #TwitterStories. Each month the platform will also curate a selection.

To create a new Fleet:

● Tap the avatar on the top left of your profile to create a new Fleet

● Start typing or tap a media icon to add photo/s or video/s

● Tap ‘Fleet’ to post

To view someone’s Fleet:

● Tap an avatar to see their latest Fleets

● Swipe down to see newer Fleets and up to see older Fleets

● Swipe left or right to see Fleets from other accounts you follow

To engage with your followers on Fleets:

● Buttons to reply and react are available when Direct Messages (DMs) are open

● Followers can reply privately via DM or quickly react with an emoji, and continue the conversation privately in DMs

● Replies and reactions will appear in DMs along with the Fleet they are responding to

Users can also view an account’s Fleets by looking on their profile page, and report a Fleet using the ‘...’ menu.

Twitter is the sixth platform to duplicate Stories from Snapchat, after Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

You read the last one right, LinkedIn is presently testing Stories too. Pete Davies, Senior Director of Product, LinkedIn mentioned the format is a lighter way for users to express themselves such as conversations during the break.

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Twitter Stories has outraged users and #RIPTwitter has been trending with close to 200K tweets as of yet. Users are angered by the cloning process and several mentioned that all they wanted was an edit button.

Well, as Jack Dorsey, CEO, Twitter in a Q&A with Wired mentioned, users will never see the edit button. Dorsey's argument seems justifiable as he said if a user edits and changes a tweet and it has already been liked or retweeted, it may contradict with the context of the tweet originally liked or retweeted.

Some of the flak Twitter is getting maybe uncalled for, but Stories was not a format needed on the platform and it distorts the individuality of the app, the reason people use it.

Update (10th June 2020):

India is among the first three countries to test Fleets, a way for people to share their ideas and momentary thoughts. These posts disappear after 24 hours and have no Retweets, likes, or public comments.

It will be available for everyone in India on Twitter for iOS and Android in the coming days in updated app versions.

Manish Maheshwari, MD, Twitter India, mentions, "From the test in India, we’ll learn how adding a new mode of conversation changes the way Indians engage on Twitter".

The response to fleets in the Indian market has been similar to their previous tests. Fleets has currently been trending on Twitter with over 30K tweets, the users do not seem to like the feature, and are mocking it with memes to be a replication of Stories.