TORONTO – Fans of TweetDeck, a Twitter client for desktop, web and mobile devices, let out a collective groan Monday, after the service announced it was shutting down multiple apps to focus on its web-based version.
In a blog post Twitter-owned TweetDeck, acquired by the social network in 2011 for $40 million, announced it was discontinuing support for TweetDeck AIR, as well as the TweetDeck apps for Android and iPhone devices.
The apps will be removed from app stores beginning in May, before they stop functioning on the devices altogether.
TweetDeck will also stop support for Facebook integration – another sign of struggle between the two social networking giants.
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The company notes that there has been heavy focus on building “fast and feature-rich” web applications, including an application for Google’s Chrome browser which would build notifications into the app.
The blog post notes that by killing these mobile applications they will be better able to focus on these web-based developments.
“In many ways, doubling down of the TweetDeck web experience and discontinuing our app support is a reflection of where our TweetDeck power-users are going. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a steady trend towards people using TweetDeck on their computers and Twitter on their mobile devices,” read the company’s blog post.
But TweetDeck AIR and its mobile apps were already facing their fate.
TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for Android and iPhone rely on version 1.0 of Twitter’s API – which Twitter is retiring starting this month.
Twitter warns that due to occasional test that affect applications running on v1.0, users of these apps may experience outages over the next two months – which may make for a frustrating user experience before the apps are removed from app stores.
On social media fans of TweetDeck tweeted their disappointment to Twitter’s official account (@twitter) after the announcement.
Competitors of TweetDeck include Vancouver-based HootSuite, servicing over 6 million users wordwide.
Follow Nicole Bogart on Twitter: @nlynnbogart
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