Twitter will begin switching off TweetDeck for Mac from tomorrow, turning its back on legions of power users.
TweetDeck is the tool of choice for many “professional” Twitter users. With support for multiple accounts, the ability to easily schedule tweets, and various other power features, many Mac users prefer TweetDeck to the standard Twitter app. Not least because TweetDeck avoids some of Twitter’s more annoying habits, such as constantly trying to switch your timeline from latest tweets to a curated selection of “Top Tweets”.
TweetDeck isn’t being withdrawn from Mac users entirely. It’s still possible to access the service on a Mac via the TweetDeck web interface, although that’s not as convenient as using a dedicated app. The app doesn’t have all the browser interface getting in the way, for example, although it is possible to recreate the TweetDeck app experience using the Vivaldi browser.
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Indeed, the ongoing support for the browser version of TweetDeck makes the withdrawal of the Mac app all the more baffling. The app is little more than a container for the web app; the ongoing maintenance of the Mac app is trivial for a company of Twitter’s size.
TweetDeck alternatives
The demise of TweetDeck for Mac will leave many Twitter users seeking alternatives.
Tweeten is the closest direct replacement for TweetDeck. It’s free and has versions for Mac and Windows, as well as a Chrome browser extension.
It’s so close to the TweetDeck experience that when I first installed Tweeten, it precisely copied the layout of my TweetDeck columns, including custom searches I’d created in TweetDeck.
The most worrying thing about Tweeten is that it hasn’t been updated since July 2021, which is the last time the developer made a public tweet. The blog on the sole developer’s website is also broken. It has all the hallmarks of a piece of software that –like TweetDeck for Mac itself – has been abandoned.
