Thanks to a bug, Twitter Fleets didn't actually expire after 24 hours
On Nov. 17, Twitter ripped off the Stories feature that Snapchat popularized and Instagram popularized even further. Twitter's version is called Fleets and unfortunately, it didn't take long for people to find a way to subvert the 24-hour expiration timer.
Twitter user donk_enby posted a thread that went viral over the weekend highlighting a bug in Twitter's back-end that would allow users to view a Fleet well after it should have expired. What's worse is that the user who posted the Fleet wouldn't even see a notification that it had been viewed.
The good news? Twitter is aware of this and confirmed to TechCrunch that a fix would come in short order.
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It's not the kind of thing an average person would know how to do, as it involves messing with Twitter's API and manipulating URLs, things that require some technical know-how. That said, the fact that it only took a couple of days for someone to figure this out isn't a great look for a feature that's gotten mixed reception from Twitter users.
It was a rocky launch for Fleets beyond this bug. Widespread performance issues led to Twitter delaying the rollout for some users by a few days, though that issue was also resolved by the end of the week. Fleets didn't arrive gracefully, but for the time being, we'll have to learn to live with them.
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Topics Social Media X/Twitter
Alex Perry is a tech reporter at Mashable who primarily covers video games and consumer tech. Alex has spent most of the last decade reviewing games, smartphones, headphones, and laptops, and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. He is also a Pisces, a cat lover, and a Kansas City sports fan. Alex can be found on Bluesky at yelix.bsky.social.
