Twitter kills fleets, its clone of Instagram stories

Twitter announced on Wednesday that it was removing its Fleets feature, which I had honestly forgotten about. The news will count for the tiny bunch of insufferable Twitter superusers who posted fleets and literally no one else.

Launched worldwide last November, Fleets are Twitter’s take on content that disappears after 24 hours – its version of Instagram Stories, which Facebook snatched from Snapchat, which is a company that currently exists. Today, a version of a Snapchat knock-off lives on most social media platforms, including LinkedIn, for reasons beyond moving comprehension.

“We created Fleets as a fleeting and less stressful way for people to share their fleeting thoughts. We were hoping Fleets would help more people feel comfortable joining the conversation on Twitter, ”Ilya Brown, Head of Products and Brands at Twitter. and video, written in a blog post announcing the disappearance of Fleets. “But since we introduced Fleets to everyone, we haven’t seen an increase in the number of new people joining the conversation with Fleets as we had hoped. “

The problem, according to Brown, is that “fleets are mostly used by people who already tweet to amplify their own Tweets,” not by people who fear tweeting in the first place. This outcome is both quite predictable and good news: people shouldn’t be encouraged to tweet more, especially if they’re already wondering if it’s a good idea to post something on the internet.

To be perfectly clear, I suck on Twitter and my only advice to anyone looking to grow their social media presence is not to. But what I can say with confidence is that the “fleeting” social media posts are a lie. Anything you say online can quickly become permanent in a way that is completely beyond your control. Just ask Brandi Levy, whose Snapchat posts led to a fucking Supreme Court case because people copied them and started sharing them around her high school. As far as Fleets’ death matters, which it doesn’t, it’s good that the world has one less way for people to make their lives harder by posting.

So, starting August 3, Fleets will disappear as a feature, which seems appropriate for a feature built entirely around the premise of the disappearance. And on that day absolutely nothing will change, nothing will be lost, and we will all forget once again that all of this has already happened.