Twitter is making this big change – and I can't understand why

It's TweetDeck's final days, before the service closes on 1 July 2022...

Laptop with speech bubbles on colourful background
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mike Lowe
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I use Twitter all the time. It's essential for work. It's useful for social. It's probably a time drain on my life too, but it puts things in front of me that I'd likely otherwise miss. And, it would seem, I'm about to be using Twitter a lot less from 1 July 2022. 

Why so? Because that is the date when Twitter is saying goodbye to TweetDeck for Mac. The application – which arranges editable columns of Twitter sourced material – will be dead and done, automatically removed from your applications list. 

"You can continue accessing TweetDeck on the web," reads the banner that, ironically enough, is currently dangling from the TweetDeck application. I could do that, I suppose, but the nature of work means that I have dozens of web browser tabs open at all times. 

The chances of me having yet another window open just for Twitter and, crucially, being able to successfully use it in that format? Close to zero, I'd wager.

Why is Twitter closing TweetDeck?

Tongue in cheek dead bird illustration on pink background

(Image credit: TanyaMcClure / iStock/Getty Images Plus)

So what's the deal – why is Twitter binning the TweetDeck application? It paid a massive $40 million for the platform back in 2011 after all.

However, Twitter has slowly but surely cut support for the application. In 2013 it shut down TweetDeck's mobile client. In 2016 the Windows support went. Seven years on, it's now the end of the road for Mac. 

The thing is: I can't understand why. Twitter has long struggled to monetise its business, which has long been documented in financial press. But, to me, TweetDeck has always felt like the most natural platform to arrange curated Twitter searches and access to personal content. 

So what can you do? One solution, as 9to5Mac points out, is to download the Unite app, which can turn a web page into an application. How well that will be supported I'm yet to see, but it could be the only solution I have to combat Twitter's big change. 

Mike Lowe
Mike Lowe
Tech Editor

Mike is T3's Tech Editor. He's been writing about consumer technology for 15 years and his beat covers phones – of which he's seen hundreds of handsets over the years – laptops, gaming, TV & audio, and more. There's little consumer tech he's not had a hand at trying, and with extensive commissioning and editing experience, he knows the industry inside out. As the former Reviews Editor at Pocket-lint for 10 years where he furthered his knowledge and expertise, whilst writing about literally thousands of products, he's also provided work for publications such as Wired, The Guardian, Metro, and more.

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