Twitter’s Mac app finally makes a comeback but it’s a complete mess right now

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Back in 2018, Twitter discontinued its Mac app. Why? Well, it was a complete mess. It barely worked, and when it did, it was slow and unresponsive. It was pretty much a flaming dumpster fire.

Fast forward to today and now the company is rolling out a new Twitter app for Mac. The only thing is that your Mac will need to be running on OS Catalina to use it. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, this guide should help you get it up and running.

Twitter’s Mac app was made possible thanks to Mac Catalyst – a new toolset Apple created to help developers easily port iPad apps to Mac desktops. There’s a bunch of technical jargon behind Catalyst, but TechCrunch sums it up pretty simply here:

The idea with Catalyst is to make it easier for iOS developers to create software for the Mac ecosystem, by allowing them to leverage their existing iOS project and source code, then layer on native Mac features, and convert touch controls to the keyboard and mouse.

On paper, this is all supposed to work, but a simple Twitter search shows that Twitter’s new Mac app is a complete mess right now. Here are some tweets that prove it:

Love the variety of font sizes in the new Twitter for Mac app. pic.twitter.com/X1XGFXKWW9

— Max Woolf (@minimaxir) October 11, 2019

https://twitter.com/_wongc/status/1182487628341567488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1182487628341567488&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2019%2F10%2F11%2Ftwitter-comes-back-to-the-mac%2F

https://twitter.com/dasomegabit/status/1182636124889591808

https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/1182474975485349895

https://twitter.com/guischmitt/status/1182483438181507073

https://twitter.com/iB3nji/status/1182483545001844736

As you can see, Twitter’s new Mac app isn’t perfect. We imagine Twitter will polish up the app in the near future, but for now, just know you’re getting pretty much the same experience as you would with Twitter’s previous Mac app.

You can download it and check it out for yourself directly from the Mac App Store here.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Twitter is testing a filter that blocks spam and abusive messages in DMs
• Twitter dropping the ban hammer on state-run media ads
• You’ll soon be able to follow ‘interests’ on Twitter
• This Chrome extension gives you the old Twitter layout back

Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com.