The official Twitter app for Mac is as good as dead. Twitter no longer offers the app for download, and it will no longer be supported in March.
So, what’s a Twitter user on a Mac to do? Here are your best options going forward.
Tweetbot ($9.99)
Tweetbot is probably the best Twitter app out there to begin with, so if you were using the service’s official app, consider Twitter pulling support a sign that you should be making the jump to Tweetbot anyway. It has a clean interface (with no algorithmic timeline or sponsored tweets), outstanding mute and filtering options, and support for all the good Twitter features like 280 characters, threaded tweets, direct messages, inline images, GIFs, videos, and lists.
There are a couple weak spots: search isn’t great, and some features that Twitter refuses to build APIs for, like polls, don’t show up at all.
Tweetbot is available on the Mac App Store.
Twitterrific (currently on sale for $7.99)
If you don’t like Tweetbot, your next best option is Twitterific 5, which recently rose from the grave following a successful crowdfunding campaign. Honestly, it’s basically the same as Tweetbot featurewise, although the UI is a little rougher around the edges than the more slick interface of its competitor. But if you’re looking for something that emulates (or rather, improves on) the original Twitter for Mac experience, Twitterrific is a good option, too.
Twitterrific is available on the Mac App Store.
TweetDeck
Going back to officially owned Twitter products, TweetDeck is sticking around for the time being. Like the Twitter for Mac app (which started out as a third-party app called Tweetie that was actually really good before Twitter slowly killed it off through a combination of neglect and mismanagement), TweetDeck started off as its own independent app before Twitter bought it in 2011. Its unique column-based interface is still popular, especially among users who like following different lists of accounts. It’s more designed for power users than the casual consumer, but at least Twitter isn’t killing it (for now).
The app has languished somewhat under Twitter’s care: it hasn’t been updated since July 2015 (for “enhancements and small bug fixes”). But if you really like the UI or just prefer an “official” Twitter product, it’s not a bad option. Unlike Tweetbot or Twitterrific, it’s also free.
TweetDeck is available on the Mac App Store or as a web app.
Site-specific browser
This isn’t quite an app, but it can feel a little bit like one. You can use an app like Fluid to create a site-specific web browser so that Twitter’s website will have an icon in your dock and a dedicated window outside of Chrome, Safari, or whatever browser you’re using.
Fluid is a free download and available from the developer’s website.
The web
Lastly, you can give up on apps entirely and just head to the web. Facebook has successfully existed on the desktop with only web users (it’s kind of fascinating that there are no third-party Facebook apps), and Twitter is obviously hoping to drive its own users toward the more easily updated and ad-driven website as well.
Twitter on the web is available at Twitter.com
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