Twitter ends some Tweetdeck apps to focus on own mobile software

Twitter Inc. is shuttering some versions of its TweetDeck software, which helps users keep track of postings on the microblogging service, as it focuses on other services, including its own mobile application.

TweetDeck apps for Apple Inc. iPhones, Google Inc. Android devices, Mac computers and machines that run Microsoft Corp.’s Windows will be removed from app stores in May, San Francisco- based Twitter said Monday in a blog post. The Web-based TweetDeck service will keep operating, Twitter said.

The social-media company is paying more attention to TweetDeck for Web browsers, saying people tend to use the service more on computers. It’s also stepping up investment in the main mobile apps, those for the iPhone and Android software, to cater to users on the go. Those apps were updated in recent months to include better search and color filtering for photos.

“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,” Twitter said in the blog.

Twitter also said it will discontinue support for Facebook Inc. integration.

TweetDeck, originally created by a London-based startup that was acquired by Twitter in May 2011, helps power users of the microblogging service track multiple tweets in real time. In the past six months, Twitter has almost doubled the TweetDeck team, who continue to work on the Web-based version of the software, the company said today.

--Editors: Tom Giles, Reed Stevenson

To contact the reporter on this story: Douglas MacMillan in San Francisco at dmacmillan3bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5bloomberg.net