The newly launched “Fleets” feature on Twitter, which functions similarly to Stories on other platforms, is currently experiencing performance difficulties. Introduced earlier today to Twitter’s worldwide audience, Fleets are displayed at the top of the Twitter application, enabling users to share temporary content that vanishes after 24 hours, as well as view updates from others. However, the initial surge in user interest and exploration of this new functionality appears to be negatively affecting its operation.

Numerous Twitter users have reported that Fleets are responding slowly and exhibiting lag. Some individuals have even stated that the feature is causing the Twitter application to malfunction and close unexpectedly.

Twitter has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is aware of these issues impacting a portion of its user base and is actively working towards a resolution.

Those affected will likely notice that when navigating through Fleets by tapping or swiping, the screen will either briefly freeze or move at a significantly reduced speed. This may give the impression of a problem with the user’s device, but the source of the issue lies within the Twitter app itself.

Beyond the performance issues, Fleets has also become the top trending topic on Twitter at the time of this report, with Snapchat – the original creator of the Stories concept – ranking second. Users are actively comparing Twitter’s version of Stories to Snapchat in their posts, and are also expressing their disappointment that Twitter prioritized developing this feature over implementing an edit button.

Furthermore, the term “Stories” itself is currently the fourth most popular trending topic, while “App Store” holds the eighteenth position. This latter phrase appears in numerous tweets where users are directing others to download the latest version of Twitter from the App Store to access the Fleets functionality.

It has been a considerable period of time since the “Fail Whale” era caused widespread outages on Twitter’s network. In recent years, Twitter has established itself as a remarkably reliable application, particularly given the volume of real-time content published on the platform and its use by prominent figures. However, with the introduction of Fleets, Twitter once again appears to be encountering stability challenges, and the duration of these issues remains uncertain.

As of now, Twitter has not issued a public statement acknowledging the problems some users are experiencing with Fleets, nor has it provided an estimated timeframe for resolving them.

Update, 11/18/20: Twitter has announced a deliberate slowing of the rollout process to address the identified performance problems. According to its responses to users, it may take several additional days for the feature to become available to all due to these stability concerns.

Update 2: On Nov. 19, Twitter communicated that Fleets were now accessible to users globally.