Twitter’s version of short-lived disappearing post function, will soon be discontinued.
Called Fleets, the sharing feature that rivals Facebook’s My Day and Instagram’s Stories, is shutting down on August 3, 2021, after it failed to deliver the sought-after increase in user engagement.
“We hoped Fleets would help more people feel comfortable joining the conversation on Twitter,” the company said in a blog post. “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.”
Twitter launched Fleets last November 2020 after testing the product in a handful of markets. The feature allows Twitter users to post ephemeral content that will eventually vanish after 24 hours, likened to the format introduced on Snapchat and further popularized by Instagram and Facebook.
READ MORE: Twitter launches ‘Fleets’
The company also mentioned in the blog that the purpose of Fleets was to get more users to post content on Twitter, but rather than encouraging new users, Fleets were just used primarily by existing Twitter users who are already tweeting.
“Fleets are mostly used by people who are already Tweeting to amplify their own Tweets and talk directly with others,” the company said.
The San Francisco-based company, in the meantime, said it was exploring new and other ways for people to share and become active on the social media platform.
“We learned a lot from Fleets and we’re excited to focus on newer and better ways to start conversations on Twitter. We’re proud of the work so far and have no plans of slowing down,” the company stated.
/bmjo
