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Twitter shuts down Fleets feature after just eight months – and some people still don’t know what it is

<p>After eight months, Twitter says goodbye to its Fleets feature on August 3</p>

After eight months, Twitter says goodbye to its Fleets feature on August 3

AFP via Getty Images

Twitter has announced it will will be axing its “Fleets” feature from the app, just eight months after first launching it.

Fleets were launched back in November 2020 as a rival to Instagram Stories and Snapchat where users can post something on their profile that disappears after 24 hours.

In a blog post on their website, Twitter’s head of product, brand & video ads Ilya Brown described Fleets as a “a lower-pressure, ephemeral way for people to share their fleeting thoughts.”

But he added that Twitter was getting rid of the feature because they “haven’t seen an increase in the number of new people joining the conversation with Fleets like we hoped.”

The company tweeted the announcement on their official account yesterday:

The sassy announcement hinted at the mixed reactions about the feature when it was first launched - with some remarking on how little it was used.

Though some admired the social media company for admitting that the tool failed.

While others pointed out the irony of how “fleeting” Fleets really were.

Some said they were glad to see the back of the feature as they didn’t use it themselves.

Critics of the tool put its failure down to it being too similar to competitors Instagram Stories and Snapchat.

Elsewhere, a few people admitted that they still don’t know what Fleets are (suppose they don’t need to know about it now...)

Twitter users have until August 3rd to make the most of Fleets. After this date people will instead see Twitter’s live audio chat rooms, Spaces, at the top of their timelines.

“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,” Brown added at the end of the blog post.

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