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Ahoy! There’s more Twitter/X drama on the horizon! According to reports, the Mac version of the website’s app is no longer accessible in the App Store, meaning that it has likely been “officially delisted.” This means that if you need to download Twitter (or, ugh, X) onto your Macbook to use as a desktop app, you can no longer do so. Instead, you will have to go through your browser if you want to use the service. If you already have the Macbook App version downloaded, you should still be able to use it right now. However, since it hasn’t been updated in over a year, it will only last until an iOS update renders it incompatible.
X (formerly Twitter) can no longer be accessed in the Mac App Store, suggesting that it has been officially delisted.
Searches for both “Twitter” and “X” on Apple’s platform no longer surface the app. The URL no longer works, either. Instead, it displays a pop-up message indicating that it is unavailable. This means new users can no longer download the service, instead having to rely on the browser-based version.
Some who already have the app installed reported they can still use it. Others, meanwhile, have reported that utilizing the iPad version on MacOS could potentially cause its own issues.
X has not confirmed when the app was delisted and has not yet responded to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Today may mark the end of the company’s Mac app — which many users have complained was buggy. After Elon Musk rebranded Twitter to X in 2023, the new name was implemented across all platforms except for the Mac app, which had not seen an update in roughly a year.
It’s unclear if X plans to disable functionality for the Twitter for Mac app altogether. We’ll update when more information is available.
I have both a Macbook and an iPhone and tested Twitter’s app out on both. I can still open Twitter from my phone and the app still shows up for me in the iPhone App Store, but if I go into the Mac App Store, I also get the error message mentioned, saying that the Twitter app is “no longer available” in my region. It’s not surprising to me that Elon “Always Looking at the Bigger Picture” Musk wouldn’t give two craps about keeping his platform available through all devices. I always found the app to be buggy, though, so on desktop/laptop, I’ve been using Twitter in my browser since the very beginning. I just deleted the long-dormant app from my Applications folder, so that felt nice to send to the trash.
In early 2023, Twitter revoked third-party apps’ access to API (Application Programming Interface), which basically killed most of the third-party client apps from running it. I had friends that used Twitterrific from its inception and were upset to lose it. I also remember TweetDeck, which let you view different accounts at one time and morphed into XPro. Part of me wants to laugh about how badly Elon Musk has purposefully run Twitter into the ground while the other part of me is sad that something that was (and still can be) a source of news, camaraderie, and community is being slowly phased out before our very eyes.
photos credit: Getty and Best Image/Backgrid
