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Twitter has announced that its official Mac app is returning to macOS, almost a year after the company discontinued the native app, to the consternation of many users.

twitterformac.jpg
Twitter discontinued its native Mac app in February 2018

Twitter faced a backlash in February of last year when it announced that it would stop supporting the Twitter for Mac app in order to focus its attention on a "great Twitter experience that's consistent across all platforms."

At the time, the company advised users looking for a "full Twitter experience on Mac" to visit Twitter on the web. However, yesterday it revealed that a fully native app is coming back to Mac, thanks to Apple's Project Catalyst that lets developers easily port apps from iOS to the upcoming version of macOS Catalina.

According to a tweet from Twitter's Support account, the returning Mac app will be like the iPad Twitter app but "fully native," with all of the system features that users would expect of a Mac app, including multiple windows, window resizing, drag and drop, dark mode, keyboard shortcuts, notifications, and more.

Twitter is thrilled to announce we are bringing the Twitter for iPad experience to the Mac!The all new Twitter for Mac will be in development this summer in preparation for an early launch on macOS 10.15 Catalina. pic.twitter.com/Q13OUMRgjt - Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) June 3, 2019

"Apple's exciting new technology empowers Twitter to easily bring our entire 1.5 million line code base from iOS to the Mac, allowing ongoing full feature parity with our iPad app, and enhanced with the macOS experience that will make Twitter feel right at home on your Mac."
The all-new Twitter for Mac is being developed over the summer and is scheduled for an early launch on macOS Catalina 10.15, which will be released in the fall.

Article Link: Twitter for Mac App Set to Return to macOS
 
I don't get why they didn't just leave the old one running until this came out. It's not like they ever updated it anyway, so we weren't expecting much. Instead, they made everyone go and buy a third-party app. Useless.
 
I'm sure users are excited as Twitter at the thought of them bringing their utterly awful iPad app to the Mac.
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I don't get why they didn't just leave the old one running until this came out. It's not like they ever updated it anyway, so we weren't expecting much. Instead, they made everyone go and buy a third-party app. Useless.

They did you a favor because the third-party apps are way better than anything Twitter offers or will ever offer.
 
The weird thing about Project Catalyst-related announcements like this one from Twitter is they make the Mac seem as if it is the upstart platform, inheriting long-running apps from a heritage OS (iOS).
 
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I use Tweetdeck, and prefer it due to the real time refreshing feed.

Is Tweetdeck better or worse than true iPad version?

Anybody have suggestions for better Twitter apps for Mac (that feature a real time refresh.)?
 
With dedicated app, people cannot block the ads. That’s why they resurrect the dedicated app. Now with Project Catalyst, the development cost is worth it
 
I'm sure users are excited as Twitter at the thought of them bringing their utterly awful iPad app to the Mac.
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They did you a favor because the third-party apps are way better than anything Twitter offers or will ever offer.

They would be better if they still had access to the APIs they did before Twitter cut them off.

I’m super happy the app is coming back. I never understand why they would remove something so many used.
 
I'm sure users are excited as Twitter at the thought of them bringing their utterly awful iPad app to the Mac.
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They did you a favor because the third-party apps are way better than anything Twitter offers or will ever offer.

Ehhh. In the past maybe, but the way Twitter has crippled third-party developers now basically means a lot of other apps are just missing key features. It's a shame.
 
1.5 MILLION lines of code for an app that shows a list of text basically. (I am simplyfing. I know it allows ‘messaging’ and photo upload too)

You can only imagine how many lines of code were used on tracking, ad targeting and a/b testing crap.

There is no way in hell something as simple as twitter needs that much code.
 
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Ehhh. In the past maybe, but the way Twitter has crippled third-party developers now basically means a lot of other apps are just missing key features. It's a shame.

What key features are you missing?

I haven't noticed anything valuable aside from the timeline streaming that I did like.
 
Right now I use Twitter.com in a Flotato app.

https://flotato.com

I also use it for Slack, WhatsApp, Trello, Discord, Telegram, YouTube and more. Way better than the official Electron apps for those services.

I've not used the Twitter iPad app in a long time so I can't compare.
 
I use Tweetdeck, and prefer it due to the real time refreshing feed.

Is Tweetdeck better or worse than true iPad version?

Anybody have suggestions for better Twitter apps for Mac (that feature a real time refresh.)?

Tweetbot. And it's not close. And if there's a feature missing that is available on the website (polls) then it's because Twitter doesn't have an API for it. They killed a lot of APIs and all the 3rd party apps had to remove a bunch of stuff.

I used Tweetdeck when it was just about the only option in the early days before Twitter bought it and, ultimately, ruined it. Unless you are a power user who needs to use it for work (ie you are the social media dept) then it's honestly just too much.
 
Tweetbot or nothing. Twitter keeps dropping more and more APIs to third parties to convince people to use the official Twitter apps. All they're convincing me to do is delete my Twitter account all together.
 
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