Twitter just terminated its abandoned Mac app

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

Twitter on Mac
Twitter on Mac (Image credit: iMore)

Twitter has just announced it's dumping its Mac app.

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Twitter for Mac started as Tweetie for Mac, the brilliant native client from former Apple OpenGL engineer Loren Brichter. Twitter bought Tweetie, hired Brichter... and promptly did not much else. A while ago, Twitter outsourced a new, fully AppKit version of the app from a well known Mac development house... and promptly did not much else with it as well.

So, yay. Better no app than an abandoned one or, worse, some hideous cross-platform Electron app.

The good news is, there are a couple of excellent third-party Twitter apps for Mac.

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There's also Tweetdeck (opens in new tab), but it's owned by Twitter so, who knows how long it'll be supported on Mac.

Let me know what you'll be using.

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

8 Comments
  • "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." This translates to:
    We want to be able to deliver ads to you, and we can't be arsed developing this app anymore so we don't want you to see negative reviews, therefore we're taking it off the App Store But hey, if this means more people are pushed towards fantastic Twitter clients such as Tweetbot and Twitterific by incredible developers, then I'm all for it. I highly recommend Tweetbot, I couldn't use Twitter without it
  • I guess I'm the only one still using the Mac Twitter app. It isn't great, but is the only one I've found that allows me to display my timeline in one single column with only a skinny menu bar on the left. Fits perfectly between Mail and the edge of the screen and lets me keep an eye on it while I do other things. Twitter web and their TweetDeck insist on a unless info box on the left - sigh. Anyone using Tweetbot - is there a limit on how narrow you can make the window?
  • You can make it pretty narrow, although there is a limit. Here's the smallest I could get it to:
    https://imgur.com/HNkQpH7
  • Thanks for posting the image, Danny, though I don't know if that is 1:1 to what I'd see on my 1920 x 1200 display. Can you adjust the font size in Tweetbot? TIA
  • That's an image from my Retina MacBook Pro, so if it looks big try halfing the size and that should be 1:1. And yes you can adjust the font size :)
  • I put your image in Photoshop and carefully reduced it until the window close-minimize-maximize dots were about the same size as on my system [insert tongue sticking out emoji]. I'm guessing that would be good size reference. If so, then the column should fit nicely on my screen. Thanks again, Danny, for your help!
  • It makes sense in the long run. Most are using the iPhone, or iPad for Twitter. It seems I only crank up the MacBook Pro when I want to work with music.
  • I use my MacBook for Twitter. There's no point in me wasting my phone battery when I'm at my Mac, plus what do I do if my phone is charging somewhere else in the house? I use Tweetbot on my iPhone and Mac, they both sync together really nicely, and both apps work really well. Can't fault them