Twitter's disappearing tweets feature is disappearing

Fleets, Twitter's feature that lets users post disappearing tweets, is disappearing less than a year after it debuted.

Twitter announced Wednesday it's shutting down Fleets, posts that only stay online for 24 hours similar to Snapchat Stories, due to low usage, The Verge reports.

Fleets started officially rolling out globally last November, with Twitter at the time saying they were intended for users to post "fleeting thoughts" and aimed at those who feel like normal tweets are "uncomfortable because it feels so public, so permanent, and like there's so much pressure to rack up retweets and likes."

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But Twitter's vice president of product, Ilya Brown, said Wednesday that while "we hoped Fleets would help more people feel comfortable joining the conversation on Twitter," Twitter hasn't "seen an increase in the number of new people joining the conversation with Fleets like we hoped." The feature is mostly being "used by people who are already tweeting to amplify their own tweets and talk directly with others," Brown added.

Fleets will be shut down on August 3rd, and going forward, Brown said the company will continue to "explore more ways to address what holds people back from participating on Twitter."