Twitter wants you to only use the original app for the short message service. In addition, the company recently officially banned all third-party clients. The problem: These have (or had) various special functions that the official Twitter app lacked – and now all users are forced to rely on them. In addition, it currently does not appear that the development cycles will be improved here. On the contrary: Instead of new innovative functions, old features are currently being pulled out of the mothball box.
I know you from somewhere
Last here was the iOS version 9.41.1 appeared, which according to the package insert contains “improvements” and bug fixes. But according to Twitter owner Elon Musk, there are also real new functions in the update. This includes so-called pinned lists, with which you can “improve your Twitter experience”. As it turns out, however, the pinned lists were once available in the iOS version of Twitter in 2019. However, the company then deleted the feature from the application without a ado. Apparently it wasn’t well received, so they went back to the regular timeline.
A second new feature in Twitter’s iPhone app is much more welcome: the company has finally managed to put full-size media previews in the timeline again. These had previously been removed for unknown reasons, allegedly being a bug. Now you should update to the latest client version so that you don’t have to constantly click on images. Cropping, which makes large parts of the preview invisible, no longer takes place.
Twitter app takes on greater prominence
With the official blocking of third-party clients, the Twitter application has become significantly more important for professionals and frequent users of the short message service. It remains to be seen whether the company is willing to take it on. The company had lost numerous developers due to austerity measures and voluntary departures. But users now have no alternative – app or web interface, both from Twitter itself.
Most recently, the company had begun to force users of the app to use the algorithmically generated timeline – although this is actually unpopular. Meanwhile, developers of third-party clients are looking for new fields of activity. An interesting new market is emerging in the area of mastodon clients. The popular developer Tapbots also wants to play along here.
(bsc)
