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Twitter Is Killing Several of Its TV Apps, Too (techcrunch.com)

Posted by msmash on from the change-of-plan dept.

Twitter is shutting down its TV apps on Roku, Android TV and Xbox starting on May 24, the company announced this morning. From a report: The news of the apps' closure comes at a time when Twitter is now trying to steer its users to its first-party mobile apps and its desktop website by killing off apps used by a minority of its user base -- like the Twitter for Mac app it shut down earlier this year. And more recently, it has attempted to kill off popular third-party Mac apps with a series of unfriendly API changes.

It's unclear why this has become Twitter's agenda. While it can be a burden for a company to support a broader ecosystem of apps where some only have a niche audience, in some cases those "niche" users are also the most influential and heavy users. And arguably, anyone launching Twitter's app on their TV must be a die-hard user -- because who is really watching that much Twitter on their TV?

6 of 29 comments (clear)

  1. Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have far more important things to do than concern myself with what you peons do on Twitter and Facebook. Let's have some real news for once, not just crap about Twitter that appeals to millennial simpletons.

    - gweihir

  2. It will be even better... by Mnemennth · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...when everything Twitter is finally killed off. They are a cancer on the global subconsciousness.

    mnem
    Modding me down won't make this any less true.

  3. Realistically can't leave Twitter but... by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I still will probably use Twitter from time to time, but I have to say there has never been a better time for some kind of Twitter alternative to come along... seriously thinking of moving to the Mastodon project regardless of no-one else on earth being there. It's not like I cared if people what I thought anyway... :-)

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Realistically can't leave Twitter but... by lgw · · Score: 3, Informative

      Check out minds.com. It's trying to be the uncensored, open source, decentralized Twitter. No clue if it actually is any of those things, but it would be nice.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  4. the answer is obvious by desdinova+216 · · Score: 2

    many of the other apps don't show ads? I'm surprised the desktop site doesn't block you if you're running adblockers (great, I'm probably going summon APK

  5. But on second thought... by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Informative

    It seems like the Mastondon.technology group (which is where I'd want to move to) are a bunch of censorship nazis who block anyone that doesn't adhere to a rigid speech code, who wants to deal with that nonsense?

    Blocking such scary content providers as "libertarianism.club" and "toot.love". Funny how they only seem to block love, not hate...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley