Twitter finally resurrected its Mac app with just about everything its users have been asking for over the past several… well, for a really long time. The update at long last looks much like the Twitter you’re familiar with on your smartphone or desktop browser. It’s complete with highly requested features like GIF support and group direct messages with up to 50 people, plus a dark theme for power users and more.
“Don’t call it a comeback!” Twitter wrote in the update description. “Twitter for Mac is getting the update you’ve been asking for.”
The social network for whatever reason pretty much abandoned its app in the Mac App Store for well over a year, despite continuously adding new features to the website and mobile apps. Even TweetDeck ended up far ahead of the Mac app. The last update in August merely added support for direct messages longer than 140 characters in length, which was pretty much a total slap in the face considering demand for all the other new features.
This update, fortunately, adds the rest. On top of the aforementioned GIF and group direct messages support, the Mac app now has inline video playback, account mute, the ability to properly quote tweets and even a Today widget in Notification Center with highlights from your Twitter feed.
Photo: Twitter
Twitter for Mac’s new dark design option mimics that of TweetDeck by changing the background to a dark gray and the color scheme to match. Otherwise, the rest of the design got some nice tweaks and updates as well like improvements to the like and retweet icons with activity counters.
It’s an excellent update, albeit extremely overdue. The only new feature that seems to be entirely absent from the Mac app is Moments. Twitter launched this brand new section online and in the mobile apps earlier this year as a way to sum up world news and trending topics with popular tweets. Perhaps Twitter is holding off on adding this to the Mac app, or perhaps Moments isn’t doing so well despite very warm reception.
I also noticed that text looks just slightly fuzzy on my 2011 MacBook Air sans a Retina display, so hopefully it looks better on newer MacBooks. That’s nothing a quick software update shouldn’t be able to fix anyway.
If like so many other people you’ve been waiting to get your hands on a Twitter for Mac that’s actually up to speed, wait no more. The version 4.0 update is available now in the Mac App Store.
