TweetDeck discontinues iOS and Android apps, doubles down on web efforts

The popular Twitter client TweetDeck will soon be removed from the iOS and Android app stores as the company focuses on delivering a better experience on the desktop.

The company, which was bought by Twitter in 2011, will continue to develop its web-based interface but will stop development of its apps and AIR-based clients.

"To continue to offer a great product that addresses your unique needs, we're going to focus our development efforts on our modern, web-based versions of TweetDeck. To that end, we are discontinuing support for our older apps: TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for Android and TweetDeck for iPhone," the company said in an announcement on Monday.

Both the iOS and the Google apps will be removed from their respective app stores in May and will stop working "shortly thereafter", TweetDeck said. It is also removing support for its Facebook integration.

The company said the removal of the mobile apps is in response to the usage trends across different platforms, for example, power users are more likely to use a desktop version of the TweetDeck client, but still use the official Twitter app when accessing via a smartphone.

Accessing Twitter via TweetDeck's web platform or Chrome browser app will continue to work without problems.
Ahead of the removal of the apps from the stores, TweetDeck warned that some users of its mobile clients or desktop AIR app that the Twitter API that they rely will be retired, beginning this month.