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Updated July 15th, 2021 at 10:50 IST

Twitter to end 'Fleets' feature after admitting defeat in bid to emulate Instagram Stories

Twitter announced it will discontinue its ‘Fleets’ feature that was microblogging platform’s own version of 24-hour-long stories for followers, on August 3. 

Reported by: Aanchal Nigam
Fleets
IMAGE: help.twitter.com/Pixabay | Image:self
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Twitter announced that it will discontinue its ‘Fleets’ feature that was the microblogging platform’s own version of 24-hour-long 'Instagram Stories' (though the inventor of the concept was Snapchat) for followers, on August 3. The Wednesday announcement implies that the company would end the feature that was unveiled only last year to compete with the Stories features available in Snapchat and Facebook Inc’s Instagram.

In a statement, Twitter’s vice president Ilya Brown said, “We hoped Fleets would help more people feel comfortable joining the conversation on Twitter.”

“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,” Brown.

‘We’ll explore more ways’

Twitter’s decision to kill the feature came after it was introduced in November 2020. Twitter Fleets allows the users to post full-screen photos, videos, reactions or just text that ultimately disappears after 24 hours. Similar features were introduced by Snapchat and Facebook, but Fleets came several years later. Twitter’s vice president also said, “Fleets are mostly used by people who are already Tweeting to amplify their own Tweets and talk directly with others.”

Brown added, “We'll explore more ways to address what holds people back from participating on Twitter." The Verge stated in its report that Twitter announcing to discontinue the feature is not only an admission that the feature failed but revealed the company’s cluelessness about how to get people to tweet more. 

Further, Brown wrote in the blog post, “We’re evolving what Twitter is, and trying bigger, bolder things to serve the public conversation. A number of these updates, like Fleets, are speculative and won’t work out. We’ll be rigorous, evaluate what works, and know when to move on and focus elsewhere.”

“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,” he added.

IMAGE: help.twitter.com/Pixabay

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Published July 15th, 2021 at 10:50 IST

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