Fans of Twitter's disappearing “Fleets” will be shocked to hear that the company will be discontinuing the feature early next month.
Say goodbye to Twitter fleets!
In a blog post announcing Fleets' departure from the platform this afternoon, Twitter said: "In the time since we introduced Fleets to everyone, we haven't seen the uptick in new people joining the conversation with Fleets that we had hoped for. As a result, Fleets will no longer be available on Twitter starting August 3."
Fleets first launched publicly in November of last year (after a test in March) as part of Twitter's efforts to address some of the reasons why users are reluctant to leave a lasting digital footprint on the social media platform.
In a series of tweets announcing the feature's launch last year, Twitter product lead Kayvon Beykpour said, "Over the past year, we've been working to understand and address the fears that keep people from tweeting." To address those concerns, the company launched Fleets as a way for users to voice their perspectives without committing to a permanent tweet. Instead, messages disappeared after 24 hours, were ineligible for public replies, and could not be retweeted or liked.
