Twitter Inc. is experimenting with a new type of tweet that disappears after 24 hours and can’t be liked or retweeted.

The feature, dubbed Fleets, was announced today by Twitter head of product Kayvon Beykpour and is currently undergoing testing in Brazil. The social network is also piloting Fleets with its employees.

The disappearing tweets work differently than the standard variety. They appear the same, containing up to 280 characters with an optional photo, GIF or video, but they show up in a separate section above a user’s main timeline. Other users can’t like or retweet the posts. It’s possible to reply to a Fleet, but only via a direct message sent to the recipient’s private inbox rather than in a public post.

“We’re hoping that Fleets can help people share the fleeting thoughts that they would have been unlikely to Tweet,” Twitter’s Beykpour wrote.

In their current, early form, Fleets are available only on the social network’s iOS and Android apps. When they’re not composing a new post, users can view other people’s Fleets by clicking their avatar. There’s also a timeline, like the main Twitter timeline but separate, that shows Fleets from all the people a user follows.

Fleets are Twitter’s spin on the self-deleting Snapchat Stories that Snap Inc. launched in 2013. Facebook Inc. has also replicated Snapchat’s self-deleting posts in Instagram and WhatApp, while Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn said this month it’s testing a similar feature.

The growing support for ephemeral post formats in other social networks means there’s a good chance Twitter will eventually graduate Fleets from an experimental capability to a full-fledged part of its platform. Another sign of the company’s seriousness came last month when it acquired Chroma Labs Inc. for an undisclosed sum. Chroma Labs was a social media startup founded by former Facebook engineers who had worked on Instagram’s self-deleting Stories post format. 

Every day, people come to Twitter to see what’s happening. One of the unique things about Twitter is that “what’s happening” is fueled by people sharing their thoughts openly, through Tweets. But sharing your thoughts publicly can be intimidating! 🧵

— Kayvon Beykpour (@kayvz) March 4, 2020

Photo: Unsplash