Official reason
Moments de-emphasized and removed from primary surfaces.
X (Twitter) · Media & Publishing
Twitter Moments
RIP
2015–2022 · 7 years in market
Curated story-packs of tweets. Editorial Twitter in an app that hates editors.
Launched
Oct 6, 2015
Discontinued
Jan 1, 2022
Cause of death
Strategic refocus
What actually happened
A magazine metaphor on a firehose. Users came for the firehose.
Lesson
Curation products need a curation culture. If the company is allergic to editors, do not ship a magazine.
Related autopsies
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RIP
Crashlytics (Twitter era)
2011–2017 · 6 yrs
The crash reporter Twitter owned via Crashlytics/Fabric, then sold. Still alive — just not at X.
Developer Tools/Acquired, then shut down+40
X (Twitter)
RIP
Legacy verification
2009–2022 · 13 yrs
The blue check as a signal of identity, not payment. Retired when checks went on sale.
Social/Strategic refocus+39
RIP
Google Reader
2005–2013 · 8 yrs
The RSS reader a generation of journalists and power users treated as a daily driver. Killed as RSS faded and Google chased social.
Media & Publishing/Low usage+39
X (Twitter)
RIP
Revue
2021–2023 · 2 yrs
A newsletter tool Twitter bought to keep writers on-platform. Killed after the ownership change.
Media & Publishing/Strategic refocus+37