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If you didn’t hear the news way back when, Twitter bought TweetDeck. We didn’t know what this meant, initially – they’ve bought third-party Twitter developers before and we saw them merge those people into their software team. For TweetDeck, their existence (at least in the way we once knew it) wasn’t wiped off the face of the internet.
Users are starting to feel the effects of the acquisition, however, as recent TweetDeck updates have been to transform the client into a way Twitter sees most fitting for their service. In the most recent update, they didn’t add or fix anything, but instead removed a feature everyone loved – deck.ly support.
Deck.ly is a competitor of TwitLonger and is basically a solution for long-winded users who don’t like breaking their thoughts up into several 140 character tweets. Above you is the graph on TweetDeck’s Android market page showing installs in the past 30 days. As you can see, their changes have resulted in a sharp decline.
The motive is clear – Twitter wants people to express themselves in 140 characters or less. That gimmick is what got them to the promised land, after all, so we can’t be too slighted by the move. And while TweetDeck remains largely the same since it was introduced last year, their new, snail-paced development cycles and their willingness to remove features to appease to Twitter has users worried and looking for other options.
For those not in the know, there definitely are several nice alternatives in the Android market. While they may not offer the unique columns-based experience TweetDeck does, they are all excellent Twitter clients in their own light. We’ve got offerings such as Plume, TweetCaster, Seesmic and Twidroyd sitting at the top of our list. Do you have a Twitter client to suggest that we haven’t? Let us know below!
they should’ve put what most devs do:
“minor bug fixes”
also, Twidroyd is now known as Ubersocial
Twitter, prepare for massive user backlash in 3…..2……
That’s depressing to see happen to what used to be such an amazing Twitter client.
Plume seems to be the best twitter client on Android anyways
Really like Plume until I had to use multiple accounts and had to seperate them, Tweetcaster is better for that :)
Also Tweet@rama on windows 8 is really nice
I still use it because it handles my lists better than any other client I’ve found. Is there another client that can so easily put lists in individual quick-access columns? I’d switch in a heartbeat if I could find one.
I quite like twicca….
Second that.
If Tweetdeck gets rid of Facebook support….there would be no point.
If they add Google+ support…installs would jump up.
Other than the facebook integration, the only other bonuses of tweetdeck are multiple accounts support and being able to post a reply into a retweet automatically.
I don’t care at all about deck.ly, but if they remove facebook I’ll dump the app.
That’s what I was thinking *could* happen. What do you think?
http://wearesocialpeople.com/twitter-kills-off-tweetdecks-deck-ly/
I encourage everyone to jump on twitter and follow @issimoapps and @britishturbo. Issimo is a twitter app created by britishturbo that is still in a private testing period. Only VIP users on his forum have access for now (I think it’s like twenty bucks to be VIP) but from what I hear it should be releasing soon.
Some notable features are push notifications and more recently I know he was testing Google+ support.
I don’t see the big deal. The columns and FB/Buzz/4SQ support are the reasons I use TweetDeck. If they were to strip out support for any of those, then I could see people being up in arms…
its the principle of removing features thats causing the uproar. Personally, I don’t think the app is a 1-star app but i rated it as such because of what Twitter has done to Tweetdeck (no transparency/communication)
Agreed. TweetDeck is a solid app, and was (and probably still is) one of the best Twitter apps out there. However we can’t ignore this these recent shenanigans wherein an “update” constitutes no real improvements and in fact detracts from the experience for some folks.
I’m hooked on TweetTopics currently… i think it’s the best and i’ve tried them all
Yeah, and he’s super good at responding to questions and upgrade suggestions.
I agree that deck.ly is a minor issue. I always stay below 140 characters, anyway. But I’m already exploring alternatives for when they pull out Facebook support. TweetCaster, Seesmic, and UberSocial seem to be the others that can post to both Twitter and Facebook.
UberSocial doesn’t work for me at all (hangs on “Redirecting to Twitter”). I like Seesmic’s huge feature set and clean, space-efficient UI. I like TweetCaster’s innovative features like Zip it, and I prefer its widgets. Unfortunately, it can’t seem to remember my current spot in my stream.
I liked Twitdroyd but if I clicked on a profile to scroll through tweets, it seemed to “forget” where I was when I backed out. So if I clicked on somebody, then backed to my own timeline, it wouldn’t wouldn’t be the same spot I was when I left.
Like many of the comments here, I use Tweetdeck because it is integrated with other services besides Twitter. I like seeing my Twitter, Facebook, Buzz and FourSquare feeds in one list.
If Tweetdeck starts deleting these other serivces, I too am gone.
I would rather they add Google+ support.
I love Plume. Tried it out after I heard about the name change from tuitor or whatever it was and haven’t looked back since.
Services like Deck.ly DEFEAT THE PURPOSE of Twitter and are only for the lazy. If you tweet requires more than 140 character, IT’S NOT A TWEET. Go post it somewhere else. Honestly, this is a really good thing.
People don’t agree with you, as you can see installs are dropping rapidly.
People don’t like a feature removal. It’s not that they love Deck.ly.
If you use TweetDeck on your phone, I suggest TweetCaster. I like it better personally.
Twicca…very fast updating.
They removed deck.ly?? YES! Finally! I <3 Twitter so much, honest to god.
(no more "No, I don't want to post my tweet as a long tweet, just tell me how many effing characters I'm over! Stop automatically checking that goddamn box!!")
Two main things I like about Tweetdeck; The bar widget and being able to see my facebook feed without having to click on anything. That being said, 90% of the time, I can’t click on things from my facebook feed and view them. They just don’t open. When they do, half the time it uses the web browser. That’s pretty much my only gripe. The Deck.ly feature is cool to have, but not really needed by most people. SInce they didn’t change anything else, I’m just not updating. If I did, I could always go back to my backup with TB.
I like TweetDeck because I can have different lists in different columns and prioritized my Twitter feed and get notified when the most important tweets come in. Any other clients able to do this?
deck.ly was terrible and breaks the whole Twitter design when it comes to @replies and such. Good riddance. If this means I get fewer tweets that look like “RT blah blah blah blah lol @fluffy… http://deck.ly/kasjdhfkjahfa” (with the rest of the deck.ly message being for @fluffykitten or whatever) then I’m all for it.
Yeah, the only reason I used Tweetdeck was because it supported both Twitter and Facebook and did a good job of keeping track of where I had read to. I regularly have a long list of updates to catch up on so it’s nice to not have to remember where i was.
I was hoping Tweetdeck would be adding Google+ soon but I forgot about the acquisition so that’s probably not too likely.
TweetCaster and Plume are my faves.
Someone needs to make a replacement. Use the Mozilla framework and rollout an Android and Desktop version.
Twicca is the best Twitter app on the Market right now. It’s still in development, but it’s still sleeker than all the others — and trust me, I’ve used ’em all: Seesmic, Twidroyd (Ubersocial), Touiteur (Plume), Twitteriffic, Twittelator, TwitBird, TweetDeck, etc.
Go download and support the development of Twicca!