Twitter says goodbye to Fleets within months of its rollout

• Twitter to end story sharing feature, Fleets, on August 3.
• Lack of traction and usage are the reasons for ending Fleet.
• Users will see Spaces at the top of the timeline.

The micro-blogging site, Twitter, is shutting down the feature of sharing stories called ‘Fleets’ within months of its rollout. Fleets were made available for public usage just eight months ago in November last year. The company says the lack of usage and traction to the site is the reason to say goodbye to the disappearing story-like feature. Fleets are stories shared in the form of media or formatted text that disappear in 24-hours like stories first introduced by Snapchat followed by Facebook and its platforms Instagram and WhatsApp.

In a blog post, Twitter shared that Fleets will no longer be available on Twitter from August 3 onwards. The company says that it will use the learnings from Fleets to create other ways for people to join conversations on Twitter.

Twitter will continue to use the top of the timeline for sharing what’s happening at the moment and you will be able to see if someone you follow is hosting or speaking on the Clubhouse-like chatroom on Twitter called ‘Spaces’.

As per the microblogging site, Fleets was built to address some anxieties that hold back its users from joining conversations, but instead, it is being used by people to promote their tweets. We may see updates on the site that incorporate features from Fleets that Twitter feels might improve the experience of its users. These features include a full-screen camera, text formatting options, and GIF stickers.

Twitter recently started full-screen advertisements via Fleets but was unsuccessful in garnering expected revenues from it because of the low usage of the feature. However, the company is still unsure if the ads will continue to appear at other places on the platform.

Twitter claims to be evolving as a platform and is trying new features to improve user engagement. “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,” Ilya Brown, Head of Product, Brand & Video Ads, said in the blog post.

Twitter has been testing features like adding emoji reactions to tweets, a subscription-based Twitter Blue and Spaces, which has seen a decent engagement since its roll-out.

SEE ALSO:
Twitter is considering Instagram-like feature to let users limit tweets to trusted friends
Twitter may soon let you sign in with your Google account