Twitter is testing a new feature in Brazil that auto-deletes tweets after just one day in a move it says is intended to make users feel less pressure and give them more control over tweets. Twitter is calling the feature—for now, at least—Fleets.
Fleets, Twitter says in a blog post about the new feature rolling out in Brazil for iOS or Android today, are tweets that expire after 24 hours and cannot be publicly liked, commented on, or retweeted. In a video teasing the feature, Fleets appears to be the Instagram and Snapchat equivalent of Stories, with the messages populating at the top of a user’s feed in the app. Twitter said that users who can view your profile will be able to view your Fleets. And just to be clear, this has absolutely nothing to do with anal sex, in case you were wondering.
Alô alô, testando…
Estamos experimentando uma nova forma de você “pensar alto” no Twitter, sem curtidas, Retweets ou comentários públicos. O nome disso é Fleets. Quer saber do melhor? Eles desaparecem depois de 24 horas. pic.twitter.com/TZEG76zjsA— Twitter Brasil (@TwitterBrasil) March 4, 2020
Fleets, like tweets, are text-first, but Twitter says users can include GIFs, photos, and videos as well. To respond to Fleets, users can click one to be forwarded to Direct Messages. If you have your DMs set to open, anyone will be able to react to them in this way. But not in the way someone reacts to an enema, which is a totally unrelated thing.
According to the company, an initial survey found that people felt more comfortable sharing frequently when using Fleets. Twitter said that if the test is successful, it may introduce it to other markets as well.
However, here in the U.S., as you by now have likely gathered, the name is already catching a whole lot of shit on Twitter for sharing its name with a company that manufactures at-home enema products, a fact that led the company’s official comms team to tweet this:
yes we know what fleets means. thanks – gay intern
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) March 4, 2020
At least it’s Friday, right? Right?!