TikTok starts testing this Instagram-like feature that Twitter has just killed – Times of India

Popular social media apps of the world — Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp — are now trying to be a one-stop-shop for users’ needs. That is why you will see almost all of them offering a version of the same kind of feature. Whether it is Reels, YouTube Shorts or Fleets, time and again, these apps test out features that their rivals offer in the hope that it sticks.
The iteration of this phenomenon is that TikTok has started testing a feature called “TikTok Stories” and if you can guess it by the name, these are set to be ephemeral posts that will disappear after 24 hours.
This feature should work like Instagram Stories, Snapchat posts or the recently discontinued Twitter Fleets. To recall, this kind of method for posting on social media was popularised by Snapchat and then adopted by Instagram as Stories.
According to a report by The Verge, users will be able to create TikTok Stories by tapping a “create” button that’s been added to the sidebar. These Stories will come with the support to add captions, music and text.
The company hasn’t mentioned the extensiveness of the testing of this feature nor has it said if at all it plans to make it an official feature.
TikTok Stories In, Twitter Fleets out
As mentioned, the 24-hour posts from Twitter, called Fleets, that were launched in November 2020 were discontinued earlier this week. Within a year of the launch of Fleets, Twitter had announced that it felt that Fleets had no future. Instead of Fleets, it will introduce “other ways for people to share on Twitter.”
Twitter admitted that not many users were interested in Fleets. “We haven’t seen an increase in the number of new people joining the conversation with Fleets like we hoped,” it said in a blog post.
It remains to be seen how successful TikTok Stories turn out to be.