Why Twitter Fleets Failed.

About Fleets

Twitter recently discontinued one of its new features, Fleets. Borrowed from Snapchat/Instagram stories, it is a type of feature that allows a user to make posts that disappear after 24hours. This type of feature is mature, with Snapchat having introduced it in 2011 and Instagram in 2016. There is a history of how people have been using it. Judging from its usage on the other platforms, it is mainly used to update followers/friends on daily experiences. Stories are more passive, having fewer interactive features than usual posts. Although Instagram has been successful in making stories very interactive, the interaction is different. The interaction is what I would call ‘many-to-one’. The viewers of the story only interact with the poster, not with each other. This feature is more suited to videos and images because there isn’t just enough space to fit text into one story post.

About Twitter

Twitter as a platform is mainly text based, with occasional photos and videos. It is a platform that is popular because of the relatable tweets people write, the humor in the tweets and educational content in the tweets. It is a platform that derives its popularity from creating discussions and allowing for commentary. With this nature, it was hard to see how fleets would have enhanced the twitter experience.

Key Weaknesses that Fleets had.

Fleets had several characteristics that were incompatible with Twitter as a platform.

1. While Twitter is a more text- based platform, fleets are more suited to images and short videos. In addition, it being a mature feature in the social media space makes it very difficult for people to change how they use it.

2. Fleets were not optimized for discussion and engagement. You couldn’t like or retweet fleets, it would have been hard for a fleet to go viral, hence less engagement. Also, twitter being more discussion oriented and with users being drawn to where there is a conversation, fleets lack of engagement features did not help it.

3. Twitter was late to the party. This type of feature has been available on other platforms for a while, and no one would be excited by its introduction on Twitter.

4. Twitter spaces seemed more popular, and they had to create space for it.

Conclusion.

While the feature failed to last long, it created conversation on Twitter and about Twitter. Twitter has not had many new features for a while, and this was well needed to cheer up users. In addition, it’s quick removal also shows that Twitter is very keen on their users’ behavior, and on only keeping features that improve the platforms offering. As an ardent Twitter user, I am waiting for more new features. I hope they last longer this time.