In November 2020, Twitter introduced their version of Stories called ‘Fleets’, for ideas that are ‘fleeting’. 

Fleets allow users to share photos or videos, which appear as bubbles at the top of the app for 24 hours.

Despite being the last social network to adopt the Story feature, Twitter explained the importance of Fleets for the platform – granting users the opportunity to share thoughts and opinions thanks to their temporary nature. 

And not only providing another connection surface within the network, Fleets occupy some prime in-app value, especially as they’re headed up at the top of the timeline. 

In this blog we explore in detail how to use Fleets, the new visuals and what this means for the future of marketing on Twitter.

What Are Twitter’s Fleets?

Twitter described Fleets as those ‘nearly-tweets’, with the aim to remove all the posts that users leave in their drafts. 

This creates a space for those ‘less important’ Tweets to be presented in a temporary form – relieving the pressures from daily posting. 

Similarly to competitors – Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook – these stories disappear in 24 hours, allowing marketers to be more creative with the content that is shared. 

An Unmissable Upgrade For Fleets

This week, Twitter’s Fleets received an update with the announcement made by the platform via their new range of visual stickers and Twemojis (below). 

The new Twemojis feature lets users place stickers on top of images or videos, helping to express their thoughts and feelings. 

These latest additions are also said to add a more organic and layered variation to content, which users can also move around and place more freely. 

With over 3,000 new Twemojis (and variations) added to the platform, it’s safe to say that users have a wide variety of stickers to choose from to perfectly reflect their emotions.

Tweeters can access the new stickers tray by pressing on the smiley face icon in the Fleets composer. 

Or, if looking for a specific sticker, users can type in the search bar to help locate the sticker that best suits their Fleet.

The Future For Fleets: What This Will Mean For Marketers

As it’s still early days for Fleets, it is likely that there will be more creative features from Twitter in the upcoming months. But these new stickers are certainly a step in the right direction for the platform. 

Especially as there is growing speculation around Twitter adding AR features, templates and filters alongside audio spaces – but so far, we can only assume that they will replicate what is currently available on other platforms.

Currently, the new stickers and Twemojis are only available for iOS users in Japan but are likely to reach other markets soon. Meaning all of you marketers can get creative with Twemojis very soon…

This is just the beginning for new features and visuals on Twitter, we can’t wait to see what they release in the upcoming months. It surely is exciting to see a new update since its Audio Tweets update last year.

What do you think about this new feature? Let us know in the comments on our post on Instagram or Facebook.