Twitter terminates TweetDeck for Windows
TweetDeck, which was launched in 2008 and acquired by Twitter three years later, has been popular among hard-core users because of its dashboard-style approach to organizing a large number of feeds.
"To better focus on enhancing your TweetDeck experience, we'll no longer support a standalone Windows app," the company announced Thursday in a post to a company blog.
In a reply to a follow-up question, a Twitter spokeswoman said that after April 15, the firm will stop updating the TweetDeck app on Windows. Those who already have the app will be able to continue using it, however.
Twitter encouraged TweetDeck users on Windows to migrate to the Web-based app.
TweetDeck on the Mac will not be affected; it will continue to be available in the Mac App Store. Twitter yanked the iOS and Android versions of TweetDeck more than three years ago, saying then that it was focused on the Web app, and the Windows app no longer appears on Twitter's website.
Although TweetDeck for Windows will be retired, Twitter hasn't abandoned Microsoft's platform: On Wednesday, the micro-blogging service released a revamped Twitter app for Windows 10 on the desktop and the first for Windows 10 Mobile. The app also runs on Windows 8 and 8.1.
But Windows customers who rely on older editions -- Windows 7 for the most part, although there is still a large pool of Windows XP users worldwide -- will be forced to run a dead-end product, switch to TweetDeck online, change to the primary Twitter app, or move to a third-party application.
TweetDeck on the Web is available here.