Twitter To Axe Fleets, Possibly After Seeing It Was Only Used For Memes And Thirst Traps

Just seven months after Twitter "introduced Fleets" in an attempt to move in on the "disappearing post" market dominated by Instagram Stories and Snapchat, the social media site announced that Fleets will be no more. "We're sorry or you're welcome," wrote the person running Twitter's official account.

we're removing Fleets on August 3, working on some new stuff

we're sorry or you're welcome

— Twitter (@Twitter) July 14, 2021

In another post in the ensuing thread, Twitter wrote, "We hoped Fleets would encourage more people to join the conversation, but that wasn’t the case. So we’re removing them and focusing on improving other parts of Twitter."

On Twitter, a site designed for thoughts to be posted and then likely washed away on peoples' timelines by hundreds of other thoughts, Fleets never quite took off. According to a post on Twitter's blog, the initial intent of Fleets was to encourage more people to use the app, but Twitter discovered that Fleets were primarily used by already-active tweeters as a way to promote their own content.

That content, as seemed clear to most Fleets posters and watchers, was essentially memes and nudes. After Twitter made the announcement, a significant amount of users jokingly bemoaned the loss of what was essentially a place to dump thirst traps.

RIP twitter fleets, now people will just have to be naked on the feed

— J.H. (@writeclimbrun) July 15, 2021

Just because fleets are dying doesn’t mean thirst trap posting needs to too. Together we can get through this trying time

— jessica fletcher’s gay nephew (@mtchll___) July 14, 2021

No because I love fleets, where am I supposed to get my nudes from now??

— Xman the Petite and Fertile (@xman2y3d) July 14, 2021

Farewell Fleets, you will be missed by horny people and essentially no one else.