Twitter tests disappearing posts in attempt to spur users’ sharing

SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter Inc. is testing a way for users to post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours — similar to the “stories” feature offered on rival social networks — in a push to encourage people to share more often on its service.

The San Francisco-based company calls these disappearing posts Fleets — short for fleeting tweets — and wants the tool to ease the pressure of online sharing. Similar to tweets, Fleets are text-first, but videos, GIFs and photos can be added.

“Some of you tell us that you’re uncomfortable to tweet because tweets are public, feel permanent, and have public counts,” Twitter wrote in a blog post on Wednesday. “We hope that people who don’t usually feel comfortable tweeting use Fleets to share musings about what’s on their mind.” The test version is available only in Brazil.

Despite having high-profile users such as President Donald Trump, Twitter has lagged behind other tech powerhouses such as Facebook and Google in terms of user growth and advertising revenue. Twitter is hoping that by offering disappearing tweets, people will be more likely to share casual, everyday thoughts — and to do so more often.

Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey is under threat from activist investment firm Elliott Management Group, which wants to push him out of the top job. Dorsey has two jobs — he also runs payments company Square Inc. — and Elliott thinks Twitter needs a full-time CEO.

Twitter has also developed a reputation for moving slowly when it comes to launching new products and features. It’s common for some ideas to percolate internally for years before they appear to Twitter users, a much slower cadence than other social media companies. Even expanding the length of tweets from 140 to 280 characters took years of debate and discussion inside the company.

Disappearing posts have become a popular way to share on competing social sites, including Facebook Inc.’s Instagram and Snap Inc.’s Snapchat. More than 500 million people use Instagram’s version of stories, and Facebook executives have pointed to this as an important growth opportunity for the company’s advertising business. Instagram’s “stories” feature already makes up about 10% of all advertising spending on Facebook properties.

It’s too soon to say whether Fleets will provide a similar opportunity for Twitter. The company has started testing features in public in recent years, often asking for user feedback before rolling them out more broadly. Instagram, by comparison, unveiled its version of stories to all global users at the same time in 2016.