Twitter's “Quickbar Uprising” Is Nothing: Wait Till The Ads Really Show Up
Some people hate Twitter's new iPhone app, and Twitter is listening: It's going to change the app slightly. — Which won't appease the people who hate Twitter's new iPhone app at all.
Context & Ripple Effects
Twitter’s iPhone ecosystem had already been framed as a UI design playground, with third-party apps such as Twitterrific competing in the iPhone client wars. The backlash over the Quickbar matters because Twitter is making a small concession while retaining the interface decision at the center of the complaint.
First-order effects
- Twitter will alter its new iPhone app slightly after user backlash, while Quickbar opponents are not getting the feature removed.
- iPhone users who object to the Quickbar face a revised version rather than a return to the prior interface.
Second-order effects
- Third-party Twitter clients gain a clearer point of differentiation: interface choices and user control can be marketed against Twitter’s own app.
- Twitter’s product team must weigh a prominent in-app placement against the risk that dissatisfied iPhone users choose rival clients.
Third-order effects
- If Twitter increasingly uses its official client to introduce advertising-oriented surfaces, control of the client interface becomes a strategic asset rather than merely a design exercise.
- The episode points toward a more consequential divide between an open field of Twitter clients and a platform owner whose product priorities may not match power users’ preferences.
The trend: Twitter’s client strategy is shifting from a UI competition among apps toward greater importance for the company-controlled interface as a home for commercial features.