Twitter shuts down official Twitter for Mac app
Ubiquitous microblogging service Twitter on Friday announced an imminent end to its native Mac client, saying the change comes as part of efforts to maintain a consistent user experience across all platforms.
Quietly revealed through Twitter's support account, the firm's Mac app is no longer available for download from the Mac App Store and support for the software will be terminated in 30 days.
"We're focusing our efforts on a great Twitter experience that's consistent across platforms. So, starting today the Twitter for Mac app will no longer be available for download, and in 30 days will no longer be supported," Twitter wrote.
For some, the Mac app's discontinuation comes as no surprise, as Twitter has long let its Mac client languish. The firm consistently updates its iOS client -- all mobile versions for that matter -- with new features and enhancements while leaving desktop iterations without.
Twitter's upgrade problem goes back year. In 2015, for example, the Mac client was updated with a design refresh that brought it up to speed with its iOS counterpart. The version also brought support for inline video and animated GIFs, which were surprisingly not available until that point.
Issues continued in 2016, when Twitter pushed out a Mac update that introduced Moments and polls, features that debuted on iOS some eight months prior.
Twitter's mobile-first focus prompted users to abandoned the official Mac software for feature-rich alternatives from third-party developers, including Tweetbot and Twitterrific.
Quietly revealed through Twitter's support account, the firm's Mac app is no longer available for download from the Mac App Store and support for the software will be terminated in 30 days.
"We're focusing our efforts on a great Twitter experience that's consistent across platforms. So, starting today the Twitter for Mac app will no longer be available for download, and in 30 days will no longer be supported," Twitter wrote.
For some, the Mac app's discontinuation comes as no surprise, as Twitter has long let its Mac client languish. The firm consistently updates its iOS client -- all mobile versions for that matter -- with new features and enhancements while leaving desktop iterations without.
Twitter's upgrade problem goes back year. In 2015, for example, the Mac client was updated with a design refresh that brought it up to speed with its iOS counterpart. The version also brought support for inline video and animated GIFs, which were surprisingly not available until that point.
Issues continued in 2016, when Twitter pushed out a Mac update that introduced Moments and polls, features that debuted on iOS some eight months prior.
Twitter's mobile-first focus prompted users to abandoned the official Mac software for feature-rich alternatives from third-party developers, including Tweetbot and Twitterrific.
Comments
How does discontinuing the Mac client make the Mac platform experience consistent? That doesn’t make sense to me.
Oh so they took it out of iOS but left it in macOS? I haven’t really paid attention to that since my home Mac is stuck on El Capitan and I wouldn’t really pay attention to it at work.
But, a better way is just to log into Twitter directly.... so they did me a favor in that. I use a browser called Ghost Browser just for this kind of thing, as it can create multiple 'sessions' which are walled-off, so I can, for example, sign into 3 (the free version supports 3, paid gets more) different Twitter accounts at once (or other social media, or services where you might have more than one account).
https://ghostbrowser.com
It's also incredibly useful for things like web development where you might want to be logged into clients sites/accounts while still logged into your own. For example, I can be logged into my Google Analytics, while also be logged into a client site and their Google Analytics, etc.
The problem is that Twitter is BAD at creating native apps on any platform.
Their iOS app sucked. They destroyed the codebase they got when they bought a third-party iOS app,
Ghost Browser costs $120 PER YEAR to use. Or $600 over 5 years. NO THANKS.
The free version is a very CRIPPLED version of Chromium. Gag.
It is simply easier to user many different versions of web browsers to accomplish the same thing but with full capabilities for free. For example, you can have mutiple accounts using Chrome, Chromium, Vivaldi, etc.
The paid version is clearly aimed at people who make a living managing multiple accounts. While yes, you can use separate browsers (and I did that in the past and still do when testing client sites), you'll run out after like 6 or so.
I'm also not getting the very crippled comment. I'm not a huge fan of Chrome either, but it works for this purpose. It would be nice if they had used a more efficient core to build on, though. Chromium is kind of a pig, but it's getting better slowly.