TweetDeck’s Preview version is currently testing with a limited number of people in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan,
TweetDeck for Mac is shutting down as Twitter pushes users to web app
Twitter’s long-ignored social media dashboard app, TweetDeck for Mac, will be shutting down on July 1. The company informed users of the Mac app of its impending closure via a banner that appears at the top of the screen upon launch. The message also suggests to users that they can continue to use TweetDeck via the web going forward.
The company additionally confirmed the shutdown via its TweetDeck Twitter account, where it noted that the updated version of TweetDeck on the web will offer more invites to users who want to try the Preview of the new web experience over the next few months.
Acquired by Twitter in 2011 for just $40 million, Twitter never really developed TweetDeck to its full potential. It bought the service at a time when rival UberMedia was snatching up social media market share by buying up apps like Echofon, UberTwitter, and Mixx. Twitter saw this as a competitive threat and largely bought TweetDeck just to keep it out of UberMedia’s hands, not because it was devoted to the product. It outbid UberMedia in order to win the deal, bringing the app in-ohouse.
But its inattention to the product was clear. Years went by without significant development — despite having a small, but fairly passionate user base who had even said they would be willing to pay for a premium version of the app.
For a company that’s struggled to generate revenue outside of advertising, it’s a wonder why Twitter never took up its most devoted power users on that offer.
Instead, it shut down TweetDeck’s mobile client in 2013, then discontinued its Windows support in 2016. It seemed the writing was on the wall for the end of its Mac app, as well, particularly after the company decided to shut down its own Twitter for Mac native app in 2018, which later returned only as a Mac Catalyst app — a way to bring iPad apps to the Mac using Apple developer tools.
Reached for comment, Twitter declined to share more about its reasoning behind its decision to shutter TweetDeck for Mac. A spokesperson only pointed us back to its tweet, which references the web version, adding that the current focus is “on making TweetDeck even better and testing our new Preview.”
Image Credits: TweetDeck’s shutdown message to users
TweetDeck’s Preview version is currently testing with a limited number of people in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, per its website, and aims to offer more Twitter.com features, including a full Tweet Composer, …read more