What happened to the stories on Twitter?

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USA TODAY

Twitter's Fleets is no more.

On Tuesday, the social media platform shut down the feature where users could share text, photos, videos and tweets that disappeared in 24 hours – similar to rival Snapchat – due to the lack of new user engagement.

The end of Fleets, which debuted last November, came nearly three weeks after Twitter announced the move. The company gave a sendoff in what other way, in a pair of tweets.

But that didn't stop some users from reportedly having a bit of, shall we say, fun with a rather risqué farewell to Fleets late Monday before they disappeared on Tuesday.

Twitter had no comment, opting to just let Fleets fly the coop.

In a blog post on July 13, Ilya Brown, Twitter's head of product said Fleets was built to be "a lower-pressure, ephemeral way people to share their fleeting thoughts," especially for new users to use the platform.

But Fleets didn't flourish. It was mostly used by those "who are already Tweeting to amplify their own Tweets and talk directly with others," Brown said. While the goal was to engage users who don't like to tweet or maybe aren't as concerned about how many "retweets" or "likes" they get per se, but to casually share their thoughts on the social platform that, well at times, can be brutal.

"We hoped Fleets would help more people feel comfortable joining the conversation on Twitter," Brown said in the blog post. "However, we haven’t seen an increase in the amount of new people joining the conversation with Fleets like (as) we hoped."

This rare admission of a product miss for Twitter comes as it has recently added new features for its 199 million daily active users including Spaces, the social media platform's response to audio chat hit Clubhouse; a Tip Jar, which allows users to send money directly to their favorite accounts; and Blue, a new subscription service that offers 'Undo Tweet' function currently for users only in Canada and Australia.  

Investors seemed to like the move as Twitter's stock has remained steady since the announcement of no more Fleets. 

What's interesting about Twitter discontinuing Fleets altogether is that the company has a pattern of taking the best assets of a feature and integrating it into the overall product. Remember the hype over Twitter Moments, "curated stories about what’s happening around the world" via tweets in 2015 that was later morphed into the Explore tab? And then there was Periscope, the once-popular Twitter-owned live video streaming app that shut down in March but is a part of Twitter's overall functionality. Periscope's co-founder, Kayvon Beykpour, is currently Twitter's consumer product head. 

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Brown said Twitter will conduct tests to try incorporating features from the Fleets composer including "the full-screen camera, text formatting options, and GIF stickers," into Twitter's product. As of now, Fleets doesn't seem to have a similar fate as Moments and Periscope yet, as Beykpour intimated in a series of tweets on Wednesday. 

"We weren’t seeing the impact we’d like to see from a big bet, so we’re going to pivot our focus elsewhere," Beykpour said. "We’re still very focused on building tools that inspire new forms of conversation on Twitter so you’ll see us taking these learnings into new bets."

"And just to make a point of our internal philosophy clear: big bets are risky and speculative, so by definition, a number of them won’t work," Beykpour added. "If we’re not having to wind down features every once in a while, then it would be a sign that we’re not taking big enough swings."

With every social media app having its own lingo and language - from Boomerangs on Instagram to Bitmoji's on Snapchat - it can be hard to keep up.

And what with some features disappearing from the apps before it feels like they were really even a thing, it can leave many of us confused.

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Currently, Twitter Fleets, is trending on Twitter but what are they? Where are they are going and why are they trending?

Twitter Fleet's were Twitter's version of stories, which originally came from Snapchat.

Fleet's/stories are photos, videos, tweets, or just simple text that disappear after 24 hours.

Once the 24 hours is up the Fleets are gone and can't be seen again. There was no option to save them into a highlight like on Instagram - they just disappear.

Fleets were introduced in November last year but many people have either not been using them or don't see the point in them.

You used to be able to view Fleets by tapping the circles at the top of your timeline, like Instagram and Facebook.

Twitter has decided to remove Fleets due to the lack of Twitter users actually using the feature.

The app originally introduced Fleets as a space for posting something users were perhaps unsure about tweeting, a quieter space on the internet for those more random thoughts.

Unfortunately, this was not how Fleets were used, with those that did use them merely just promoting their proper timeline tweets, which was not the point of Fleets.

Ironically since removing Fleets they have started to trend on Twitter, with users sharing their thoughts on the short-lived feature.

One said: "Fleets, you will be remembered, but now, my dear, sashay...away"

Another said: "Now that fleets are gone, can twitter invest in something that we'd all like? Such as uh... An edit button to fix typos and grammar mistakes on tweets? Thanks."

Did they get rid of stories on Twitter?

Where did fleets go on Twitter?

Did they get rid of Twitter fleets?

Why was Fleets removed?