Stories are coming to Twitter in a format called 'Fleets'

Twitter has finally joined the bandwagon. From today on the stories feature we’ve seen take over social media sites (including LinkedIn for some reason) – now called fleets by Twitter – will be rolling out to users all over the world. What started as a joke is now finally official, and the mixed reactions are funny.

You’ll remember stories debuted with Snapchat, a now little used app (sorry Snapchat users. All three of you). Then Facebook brought the feature to its apps, and they were a hit. But before they became a hit, you’ll remember the backlash from users. Some people swore to never use WhatsApp’s statuses. Some swore the stories feature would die on Instagram before people used it. But here we are; Most interaction on both WhatsApp and Instagram is through the stories.

Companies know the feature is loved. They know that no matter how controversial it may seem at first, people will still use the feature eventually. And they’ll use it even more than they use the original app features. It is a fact people share more stories than they share pictures/videos to the timeline on Instagram. People share more WhatsApp statuses than they message each other. The same will be the case for Twitter’s fleets, I dare say. Only time will tell.

The thing is people haven’t been very open to sharing their activities and personal lives on Twitter. Because in and of itself, Twitter is very public, and everyone can easily interact with your content. So putting personal stuff – something very many humans love doing – hasn’t been so easy on the platform. Fleets change that. Being ephemeral, people can be confident that whatever they share there will not only soon disappear, but will also not be searchable the way other content on the site is.

From the first reactions I’ve seen, to the number of fleets already shared on my timeline, I know it is a feature people secretly love to hate on. What are your thoughts?