Twitter for Mac received a big update yesterday, but apart from the exciting news of a update after years – it’s reported didn’t dedicate any resources to the update. The company reportedly outsourced the development, which isn’t uncommon for companies to do, but for Twitter has caused an outcry of not being committed to the app.
First lets talk about the update Twitter for Mac received. The most notable and recognizable change is the new design with a dark theme. The new look is a minor change when you look at the dozen or so new features added into the app. Users can now view GIFs, play videos inline, mute specific users, use native quote tweets, privately message groups, and get highlights. These features were all available in Twitter for iOS and Android, and they were all available on the web too. Twitter also finally changed favorites to hearts on the app.
The app at first looked like a welcomed change, but after a few hours of use I’ve noticed dozens of bugs. Notifications repeating at least 900 hundred times, the scrolling lags, and their are login issues. While people are going to fault Twitter for this, the company didn’t have any of its employees build or develop the app. They outsourced it to Black Pixel (As The Verge reported), a company who’s built apps for ESPN, Starbucks, and others.
The Tweet that started all these rumors was from a former employee, who ironically tweet out that it wasn’t developed by Twitter.
@gte Out sourced. There’s a long and sordid story behind it…
— Jonathan Wight (@schwa) December 30, 2015
This could all just be a rumor, but Twitter hasn’t denied the claims and a lot of the tech press has already went with the report from The Verge. Twitter stock is already at an all time low with user growth stalled, and a new CEO. The company doesn’t have any room for trip ups like this, and they’ll need to update the Mac app quickly to fix all the problems if they want to regain some users trust.
If you don’t want to use Twitter for Mac their are dozens of other options including Tweetbot, which is a highly recognized and love Twitter client for Mac and iOS. Tell us in the comments below if you use Twitter for Mac and what you think about the new update!