Twitter is Killing Fleets, Its Expiring Tweets Feature

Say goodbye to Fleets, the row of fullscreen tweets at the top of the Twitter timeline that expire after 24 hours. The ephemeral tweet format is shutting down due to low usage after launching widely just eight months ago. From a report: Starting on August 3rd, users will instead just see active Spaces -- Twitter's live audio chat rooms -- at the top of their timelines. And the composer for traditional tweets will be updated with more camera editing features from Fleets, like text-formatting and GIF stickers over photos. Twitter's decision to axe Fleets is not just an admission that the feature didn't work but that the company still hasn't figured out how to get people tweeting more. For years, Twitter has struggled to get new users to post regularly and not just consume other people's tweets. Fleets was its shot at using Stories, the popular social media format invented by Snapchat and further popularized by Instagram, to lower the pressure around tweeting. "We hoped Fleets would help more people feel comfortable joining the conversation on Twitter," Ilya Brown, Twitter's vice president of product, said in a statement. "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."

unsurprising

[Vehemence]

Every fleet I ever tried to view was already gone by the time I saw the notification!

There was a chance for success

[SuperKendall]

If only Twitter had launched the service focusing on art, showing people art for a limited time that would then vanish. a fleeting art service... far more elegant.

It could have been called FARTS.

Alas, the service they chose to stand on was called "fleets", and it turned out the world as a whole just didn't have enough fleet fetishists.

Re:

[GoTeam]

Let's not forget that Fleet is a popular enema brand. It has kind of similar function to twitter. Before twitter, we knew lots of people had weird thoughts and ideas, but they were hidden. Twitter allows that hidden excrement to flow freely into the world. Your comment about naming it FARTS kind of brought that comparison into the light.

Re:

[SuperKendall]

Twitter allows that hidden excrement to flow freely into the world. Your comment about naming it FARTS kind of brought that comparison into the light.

Truly an excellent connection to make! Indeed the similarly is uncanny.

Fleets

[phalse phace]

so Fleets is now a Fleet

Is it any wonder nobody used it?

[DrXym]

All that bar was for most users was screen clutter - lost space for a feature that nobody used and couldn't be disabled even a person wanted to. If these "fleets" were rolled into the timeline or off on the trending content tab then maybe they'd be more popular and less annoying.

Re:

[ayesnymous]

Fleets sound like a ripoff of the Facebook Stories feature. People are still using Facebook stories though.

News at 11

[robi5]

It was always going to be ephemeral

"Monetization" & "Ticketed Spaces"

[McGruber]

I just reinstalled the Twitter App on a device I had wiped. The app now has "Monetization" and "Ticketed Spaces" items on its menu -- I presume Twitter is adding the ability to sell access to live streams.

Twitter is an RSS Feed replacement

[Gonoff]

Once upon a time, I used an RSS reader to follow people of interest, certain companies and so on. As social media became more used, many people/things I wanted to keep am eye on dropped the RSS and new ones never put it on their website. "Follow us on Twitter." I have had a twitter account for a long time so I did.

I have had a couple of companies try and use it as a 1-1 communications tool but, happily, that has mostly gone. It really is not social media. That is things like Facebook or even Google+.

Finally...

[Syntastic]

I HATED that damn Fleets bar, and they wouldn't let you disable it. I ended up uninstalled that damn app and just using the web where Fleets wasn't a thing. Linked In has the same damn thing.