It seems the old (and good) version of TweetDeck is back, at least for now.
Last week amid Elon Musk’s brilliant decision to limit the amount of content people can see on a platform that’s business is all about serving people content, the original TweetDeck broke. TweetDeck, for those unfamiliar, is a version of Twitter that allows users to view multiple streams of incoming content at once. It’s become a beloved tool for many, especially those who benefit from real-time access to information.
After breaking the old TweetDeck, Twitter “fixed” the problem by announcing the launch of the “new” TweetDeck, which was really just pushing the preview version of the work-in-progress TweetDeck redesign onto all TweetDeck users. Except, that didn’t sit well with many since the new design isn’t great and lacks several features that people relied on.
Thankfully, the old version of TweetDeck is back now. The Verge reported on July 8th that old TweetDeck started working again, as well as the free API that enabled third-party Twitter clients. As of publication, old TweetDeck was still working in my tests.
The Verge pointed to a GitHub update from Roberto Doering, the developer behind Harpy, a third-party Twitter client. In the update, Doering said he updated Harpy to use the “old vi API” to get the app working again, but warned the app wouldn’t be maintained since “Twitter will most likely shut down access to their legacy api (again) soon and third party apps are still against their [terms of service].”
So far, there doesn’t appear to be any official acknowledgment from Twitter or Musk about the return of TweetDeck or the API.
Likely, old TweetDeck won’t stick around long, either. Even if it does, it won’t be available without a subscription soon, so those who rely on TweetDeck will either need to pony up for Blue or find another platform. For a moment, it seemed Meta’s newly-launched Threads app might be the one to finally oust Twitter, but Instagram head Adam Mosseri says the company won’t “do anything to encourage” politics and news on Threads. In other words, a tool like TweetDeck likely won’t emerge for Threads.
How to get the old TweetDeck back
If you want to enjoy the old TweetDeck again until it inevitably goes away, here’s how:
- Go to TweetDeck’s settings
- Click to the TweetDeck Account settings
- Select ‘TweetDeck version’ and pick the option to revert to old TweetDeck
Source: The Verge
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