This year, April 15 won’t just be the last day to file your taxes. It will also be the last day of support for the Windows version of Twitter’s TweetDeck application. The company said the decision was part of its efforts to streamline the application’s backend.
Windows users will still be able to access the tool, but they will have to do so through its Web application. The news comes just one day after the company released an updated version of its Windows 10 Twitter app, including support for Windows 10 mobile.
Nevertheless, the decision to kill the Windows version of TweetDeck is hardly a surprise. Twitter stopped supporting other versions of the platform in 2013, including the iOS and Android apps, and the Adobe AIR desktop version. At the moment, the company is still supporting the Mac OS and Chrome versions of the application.
Streamlined Login Process
TweetDeck provides additional functionality for users to manage their Twitter accounts. In particular, TweetDeck has proved popular with social media professionals and hard core users since its dashboard interface provides an easy way to schedule tweets, keep track of messages, follow mentions, and manage multiple accounts at the same time. TweetDeck launched in 2008 and was acquired by Twitter in 2011.
Despite dropping support for the Windows version, the company said it isn’t making any changes to the app itself. In a company blog post to users Twitter said it was making the change “to better focus on enhancing your TweetDeck experience.”
Twitter is also streamlining the way that users log into their accounts. Users logged in to any Twitter Web site, such as its main site or its analytics page, will now be automatically logged into the TweetDeck app. The company said it would be rolling the change out to all users gradually over the next several weeks.
Troubled Times
The social media company said the changes were part of a number of infrastructure projects it has been pursuing in an effort to build a more stable foundation for TweetDeck in the future. Over the last year, the company has introduced features such as TweetDeck Teams, group Direct Messages, and a confirmation step before Tweeting, as well as new search filters to make it easier to surface Vines, GIFs, Periscopes, and older content.
The microblogging platform has been trying to pull itself out of a stall in user growth. Last year, CEO Dick Costolo stepped down following news of a $ 162 million loss in the first quarter despite a 74 percent increase in revenue.
The company’s user base has continued to grow, with the number of monthly active users increasing by about 18 percent annually. But with only around 300 million monthly active users, the social media service doesn’t appear to have a chance of catching up with competitors such as Facebook, which enjoys both faster growth rates and 1.59 billion monthly active users as of December 31.
Image Credit: TweetDeck icon and screenshot via Twitter.
