Twitter says Twitter for Mac will no longer be available for download starting today, will end support for it in 30 days
The company will no longer support the client after 30 days — Twitter's erratic support for its dedicated desktop Mac application is coming to an end …
The VergeNick Statt
Context & Ripple Effects
The shutdown closes a loop opened in October 2015, when Twitterpreviewed a redesigned Twitter for Mac client it promised to launch 'in the coming months' — a refresh that never materialized into sustained investment. It also follows a familiar script: a year earlier the company shut down its iOS and desktop Dashboard app, another first-party surface retired rather than maintained.
Mac users lose the only first-party native client: downloads end immediately and support lapses in 30 days, pushing them to twitter.com or paid third-party clients like Twitterrific.
Twitter sheds maintenance burden for a codebase it had left effectively unrefreshed since the 2015 redesign preview stalled.
Second-order effects
Third-party macOS developers become the default desktop experience for power users just as API tightening begins constraining what their apps can do — Twitterrific's removal of notifications and streaming for new customers shows the squeeze arriving months later.
Consolidating usage on first-party surfaces concentrates Twitter's control over the desktop timeline, setting up the eventual retirement of TweetDeck for Mac four years on.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, native desktop clients give way entirely to browser-based first-party clients, letting the platform change APIs, ads, and ranking without shipping per-OS updates — at the cost of ceding the desktop experience to whoever still holds API access.
A shrinking sanctioned-client ecosystem narrows the surface where independent tools can read the firehose, foreshadowing the tighter platform-control posture visible in later link-deprioritization and algorithm policies.
The trend: Twitter has spent years retiring native desktop clients in favor of its own web experience, trading user-facing polish for centralized control of the client surface.
Context: Twitter posted a profit for the *first* time last quarter and Twitter for Mac doesn't support ads or other revenue generating features unlike all the other “platforms” that Twitter actively supports. http://twitter.com/...
This is actually a great way of forcing yourself to use Twitter less. I got rid of the app months ago and found myself using Twitter less and it made me happier as a result. Why Twitter would want this too is a different question. http://twitter.com/...
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.
We too are struggling to find talented Mac platform developers so have killed off the stuff we suck at. Hey look at this webpage instead.. http://twitter.com/...
The problem is that the full experience on the web isn't as good as what Twitter for Mac did wonderfully — stream tweets without needing to constantly refresh. TweetDeck not as good in that it lacks engagement stats. Oh well. http://twitter.com/...
Me and a couple freelancers who put in a handful of hours a month manage a newsletter, a site, and a killer app for iOS. Twitter has thousands of full-time employees and can't manage a Mac app? http://twitter.com/...
Twitter's native macOS app was so good when first acquired — fast, smart, fun, quirky but consistent. It was a perfect app that made an imperfect service palatable for years. Then they switched codebases. “Rewrote” it, but really erased every bit of polish that made it a joy. htt…
The Mac App was the easiest way to be logged into multiple accounts at once, something the website doesn't offer. I still use it, and am going to miss it when it's gone. http://twitter.com/...
back in my day we had to load tweets using a custom application that you'd download and then the company forgot about it and then remembered it and then forgot about it and then remembered it and then forgot about it and then remembered it and then forgot about it and then rememb…
It's unbelievable how great a native Mac native client Twitter had when they acquired Tweetie. Just unreal what they pissed way in favor of a shitty web interface. https://twitter.com/...
The Mac losing an app as fundamental to today's society as Twitter is exactly why macOS needs ‘Marzipan’; without a shared app platform, the app ecosystem is going to leave the Mac behind — get used to web apps