Twitter has
discontinued TweetDeck apps for iPhone, Android and Adobe AIR (a desktop version). The company posted about the development on the TweetDeck blog announcing that the apps will be removed from their respective app stores in early May following which they will stop functioning. In addition to that, Twitter is also removing support for Facebook integration from TweetDeck.
The company also mentioned that TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for Android and TweetDeck for iPhone rely on version 1.0 of Twitter's API, which it is retiring this month, and that users of these apps may experience some outages till the time they are removed from their respective app stores.
Twitter also stated that it intends to shift its focus on the development of the modern, web-based versions of TweetDeck, and that it has already increased its investment in native Twitter apps including Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android, as most users prefer to use the Twitter app and not TweetDeck on their mobile phones. The company recommends TweetDeck's web and Chrome apps, which will get new capabilities followed by its PC and Mac apps.
Twitter said, "In many ways, doubling down on the TweetDeck web experience and discontinuing our app support is a reflection of where our TweetDeck power-users are going. Over the past few years, we've seen a steady trend towards people using TweetDeck on their computers and Twitter on their mobile devices. This trend coincides with an increased investment in Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android - adding photo filters and other editing capabilities, revamping user profiles and enhancing search. That said, we know this applies to most of our users - not all of them. And for those of you who are inconvenienced by this shift, our sincere apologies."
Twitter had acquired TweetDeck for $40 million in May 2011. The company also received flak for not regularly updating the TweetDeck apps.