Twitter Fleets will soon be unavailable on the micro-blogging platform.
The feature, which some users liken to “Instagram Story,” will no longer be accessible starting August 3.
we’re removing Fleets on August 3, working on some new stuff
we’re sorry or you’re welcome
— Twitter (@Twitter) July 14, 2021
This decision came after Twitter observed that there was no increase of new users joining Fleets conversations since it was introduced last year.
“We built Fleets as a lower-pressure, ephemeral way for people to share their fleeting thoughts. We hoped Fleets would help more people feel comfortable joining the conversation on Twitter,” the micro-blogging platform said.
“But, in the time since we introduced Fleets to everyone, we haven’t seen an increase in the number of new people joining the conversation with Fleets like we hoped. Because of this, on August 3, Fleets will no longer be available on Twitter,” it added.
Twitter assured its users that it will continue to try “bigger, bolder” things to improve public conversations on its platform.
“If we’re not evolving our approach and winding down features every once in a while – we’re not taking big enough chances. We’ll continue to build new ways to participate in conversations, listening to feedback and changing direction when there may be a better way to serve people using Twitter,” it said.
A fleet, which has options similar to other social media applications, allows users to share photos, videos, reactions to tweets and messages, and customized these with different backgrounds and text options.
Fleets can also be viewed on a user’s profile for 24 hours only.
When it was launched in November 2020, Twitterverse, including Filipino users, brought up the need for the “edit” button.
They aired that Twitter need to have the edit feature to correct any typographical or grammatical errors in their published tweets. They also wish to rectify some posts which were misconstrued by their followers.
RELATED: Story but no edit? Twitter users bring up edit feature request as platform introduces ‘Fleets’
Meanwhile, Twitter listed down the following insights after launching the short-lived feature as well as its plans for the platform:
- Fleets were mostly used by people who are already active Twitter users, rather than their target users who don’t tweet often.
“We’ll explore more ways to address what holds people back from participating on Twitter. And for the people who already are Tweeting, we’re focused on making this better for you,” it said.
- The team will add more options other than sharing photos and videos to add to discussions on Twitter.
“Twitter. Soon, we’ll test updates to the Tweet composer and camera to incorporate features from the Fleets composer – like the full-screen camera, text formatting options, and GIF stickers,” it said.
- Twitter Spaces, its feature that allows live audio conversations, will remain.
- Twitter will also explore how to add full-screen, vertical format ads in fleets.