The popular micro-blogging platform, Twitter, recently made the decision to eliminate certain features, causing some discontent among its users. This decision was based on the low usage of these features, with Twitter stating its intention to prioritize the development of features that are more frequently used by its vast user base.
Earlier in the year, Twitter introduced a new story feature known as ‘Fleets’, a similar function to the stories found on Facebook and Instagram. However, this addition was met with significant criticism and mockery, resulting in many Twitter users opting to boycott the feature.
Twitter responded to the overwhelmingly negative feedback and announced that the ‘Fleets’ feature would be removed by August 3, just eight months after its initial launch. The San Francisco-based company admitted that Fleets failed to engage users, as the number of people participating in conversations through Fleets was extremely low.
“Drawing on our experiences with Fleets, we will shift our focus towards developing other ways for people to engage in conversations and discuss current events in their world,” Twitter stated in an official announcement.
1. Periscope
The app which was discontinued in March 2021 had Twitter in a statement premising its decision on the fact that the app is in an “unsustainable maintenance-mode state.”
2. Twttr (Threaded replies)
Twitter had introduced Twttr to help easier and swifter conversations between users. In the site feature, a layout that showcased previous conversational replies with thin, grey lines had negative feedback form users who showed their inability to understand and configure the new site.
Twitter, not oblivious of this, announced that it would by December 2020 shut down Twttr in a statement which reads:
We appreciate the feedback you gave us through this run of our prototype app twttr. For now we’re turning it off so we can work on new tests to improve the conversation experience on Twitter. If you’re using twttr, switch to the main Twitter app to keep up with what’s happening. https://t.co/xq4emx9HeH
Twitter created the Application Programming Interface (API) to assist users read and write Twitter data, which will enable them compose tweets, read profiles, and access their followers’ data and a high volume of tweets on particular subjects in specific locations.
Twitter had in a blog post in 2018 said it would remove access to APIs needed to power push notifications and an auto-refreshing timeline. Rob Johnson, a director of product, said Twitter would stop supporting those APIs so it could focus on its own native applications
4. Twitter moments
Also in 2018, Twitter took down the ‘Moments’ feature that had earlier been designed to enable users curate stories by publishing a collection of tweets to show different perspectives on the same topic or event.
Twitter announced that “Twitter moments” will be taken down within iOS and Android Apps when it wrote on its Twitter support:
On October 23, we’re removing the ability to create Moments on the Twitter for iOS or Android apps. When features aren’t used as often, we’ll remove them, so we can focus on building other products you’ll love.
Vine, a free mobile app that enables users to record and share an unlimited number of short, looping video clips with a maximum length of six seconds was created to achieve a feel of nostalgic user experience but that was short-lived.
The micro blogging platform yanked off the ‘Vine’ feature in October 2015 as it said it wants to keep its costs low and trim down nine percent of its global workforce. Twitter claimed the cost of keeping Vine running was more than it could maintain.
One thing can be deduced from this, the feedback from the users will determine if a new feature stays or not. It doesn’t matter if the feedbacks are logical, but Twitter knows the power lies in the users who make up the numbers and has no option than to pay attention to the audience demands.
This article was updated in 2025 to reflect modern developments.
Ayoola Faseyi, an Abuja based Journalist with interest in Technology and Politics. He is a versatile writer with articles in many renowned News Journals.He is the Co-Founder of media brand, The Vent Republic.
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