Twitter for Mac’s future isn’t looking very bright. The app hasn’t received an update in over a year, and it doesn’t look like Twitter will be updating it ever again.
Word on the street is that Twitter has an update technically in its pipeline, but the social network probably won’t pull the trigger. Twitter for Mac has basically been sent to its grave.
Well-sourced TechCrunch columnist MG Siegler tweeted the news earlier, and TechCrunch picked it up shortly after. Here’s what MG said on Twitter:
Word is that Twitter made the call today: Twitter for Mac is done. They won’t kill it outright, but no further updates. Goodbye, old friend.
In a second tweet:
One more thing: had heard whispers of Retina (pretty easy to update) not sure if that made the cut before decision or not.
Twitter recently bought TweetDeck and has been pushing out updates rather aggressively, but for some reason, the original Twitter for Mac app has been severely neglected for quite some time. This is probably because Twitter has been so focused on monetization and its new API — an API with rules that encourage third-party developers to stop making their own clients.
With Twitter integration baked into OS X, maybe it does make sense for Twitter to stop working on the app. If the point of the official client was to send tweets, then OS X lets you do that already. For interacting with the timeline, Twitter may think the web app is good enough.
Twitter for Mac launched in the Mac App Store back in the summer of 2011. The app was originally called Tweetie for Mac before Twitter purchased it from Loren Brichter, the beloved designer who is responsible for the official iOS Twitter apps and has since left the company.
Update: John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame has chimed in:
I’ve heard the same thing. Worst part is, they may even have a retina-ready update ready to release — but they’re just going to keep it in their pocket out of spite. They want people to use the website.
Source: MG Siegler
Via: TechCrunch
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
8 responses to “Twitter Looking To Kill Off Official Twitter For Mac App [Rumor]”
Who uses twitter? seriously only celebrities or people with a blog or youtube channel benefit from it the average person will just use Facebook or their mobile.
Actually, if you follow some of the news and tech news feeds it’s great. I’ve heard about things going on via Twitter before news sites post it. Same with weather…
I guess I am one of the few that actually uses this app every day. I have CNBC and Twitter running on a second screen all day long.
I wouldn’t freak out too fast. It’s possible that they are keeping tweetdeck and are morphing it into their twitter client. Or that they are in talks with Apple about even more integration. Like perhaps rolling your timeline into Messages somehow. Then you wouldn’t need a separate client.
or they could simply be wanting folks that are on their computers to use the web. They might have numbers that show that only like 10% of Mac using customers are looking at tweets via computer, the rest are on their phones. So they might feel they are wasting resources with the Mac client when they could be focusing on server issues and the mobile apps.
That’s too bad. Twitter was my main news source. I thought the OS X integration was brilliant.
I don’t know what the big deal is, considering how much better of a client you can get through a 3rd party. I use HootSuite myself but there’s many capable items.
There’s other apps that you may learn to love. Give them a chance.
This isn’t true at all. It’s an incredible platform. I didn’t appreciate it until I realized what all can be done with it. Most celebrities you claim to be the only people who use it/benefit from it don’t even know how to use it properly.