Facebook and Twitter are constantly locked in a fascinating dance, a competition of sorts that makes them push closer and then farther away from the each other with each move they make.

Today, Facebook’s new test is bringing the social network a tiny bit closer to Twitter as it announced a new posting option; it will allow users to create News Feed posts that are strikingly similar to tweets.

The test, first reported by CNET, introduces a new option: making Facebook posts that are visible only in the News Feed, instead of being permanently engraved into your Timeline.

It’s a dip into Snapchat’s ephemeral business because the update will be somewhat ephemeral, pushed down as other updates appear. They won’t be completely gone, as users can find them through search or with a link.

But the feeling of a mostly disappearing update is definitely new according to Facebook standards. It borrows something of a tweet’s nature and less of a typical Facebook post, which is usually recorded permanently on your Timeline to be viewed for years.

Given that their friends won’t view them for long, users are bound to be more comfortable to post more – even if just quick or lighthearted – things that aren’t necessarily important, but they’d nonetheless prefer to share in the online.

The News Feed-only posts aren’t enabled by default; a post-by-post basis will be necessary, which will appear in the form of the “Hide from your Timeline” option beside the posting button.

According to Engadget, Facebook has found out that people are interested in being able to post more ephemeral messages, so the new feature is designed to “make it even easier to control where your posts live.”

For now, the tweet-like Facebook posts are still in testing, so only a select number of users are seeing it. Even if does roll out universally, it’s hard to imagine this new feature making a massive change in how people use Facebook.

What the company hopes to happen is users feeling encouraged to post more, even though it’s in ways they aren’t typically comfortable with. This test is part of Facebook’s effort to combat a decline in sharing across its site, hoping to address the problem.
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