Dead Again: Twitter for Mac
Zac Hall
Pour one out:
As noted by Vedant, the official Twitter for Mac app is currently missing from the Mac App Store. While it hasn’t been confirmed, the most obvious guess is that X, formerly Twitter, finally got around to delisting the abandoned software.
I'm both surprise and not at all surprised that nearly two years after Elon Musk took over Twitter, the native Mac client was still there seemingly forgotten about. And I do mean that literally. Not just neglected – as it had long been – but actually perhaps totally forgotten about. Thankfully, whatever API it was using continued to work even as the new Xitter ripped those away from other services. And actually, it continues to work even now, if you installed it previously.
Perhaps the only reason I'm actually surprised it was still around is that it retained the old Twitter name and logo, almost exactly one year after the 'X' was put over Larry the Bird's eyes. Of course, basically the entire world is still filled with reminders of old-school Twitter, as my non-scientific poll suggests about 99% of storefronts in Europe have not updated their social signage to 'X'. And won't.
The best feature of Twitter for Mac was that it had the ability to auto-refresh the top of the tweet timeline. This made Twitter feel like an actual newsfeed, and completely alive. (Something else you should think about copying to go more real-time, Threads.) Other services, including now Xitter, made you push (or pull) something to refresh, but not old trusty Twitter for Mac. If memory serves – which it does – this came out of Tweetie for Mac, which is the client Twitter acquired back in the day from developer Loren Brichter. Well, to be clear, they wanted Tweetie, the iPhone client, the Mac client just came along for the ride.
And now that ride ends.
And in perfect Xitter fashion, it seems (per 9to5Mac's updates):
Update 2: X for iPad is now available to run on the Mac. No timeline streaming, of course.
Update 3: X users may want to hold off on using the X for iPad app on the Mac. X has been erroneously suspending the accounts of users who run the X for iPad app on the Mac.
Lol.