Twitter Killing TweetDeck for iPhone and Android

Twitter will shut down multiple TweetDeck apps to focus on the product's web-based version, the microblogging service announced Monday.
In yet another sign of the battle between social media's two biggest players, Facebook integration will be removed, too.

The announcement was met largely with a chorus of "nooooooooo," "whyyyyyyy" and "gaaaaaaaah" on social media, reflecting TweetDeck's widespread popularity with hardcore Twitter users.

TweetDeck AIR, TweetDeck for iPhone and TweetDeck for Android will be removed from their respective app stores in May, and stop working soon after, according to a TweetDeck blog post.
"To continue to offer a great product that addresses your unique needs, we’re going to focus our development efforts on our modern, web-based versions of TweetDeck," the post says.

TweetDeck is a well-regarded Twitter client that the microblogging network bought in 2011.
Moving forward, TweetDeck's web and Chrome apps will be the first that Twitter enhances with updates and new features, while the Mac and PC apps will continue to evolve as well.

Your final couple months using TweetDeck's AIR, Android and iPhone versions may not be smooth sailing, either. Those apps will continue to rely on version one of Twitter's API, which will be retired this month. Blackout testing on version one begins March 5, so mobile TweetDeck users will likely begin experiencing outages with their apps on Tuesday.

"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," the post reads before later adding: "And for those of you who are inconvenienced by this shift, our sincere apologies."

Is this a pain, or not such a big deal? Give us your take in the comments.

Photo courtesy Flickr, Andy Miah
Mashable composite image; Photo via iStockphoto, rtiom

TweetDeck Update Adds Keyboard Shortcuts and More

TweetDeck for web, Chrome and PC was updated Wednesday to version 2.1, bringing with it a number of new features.

Feature additions in the updated TweetDeck include support for expanded tweets, the introduction of keyboard shortcuts, and the ability to edit your search columns.
Lists can now be quickly opened by typing the name of the list into the search box. If you want to check out a list you’re not subscribed to that belongs to another user, you can do that by typing in @username/listname into the search box. Both actions will bring the list you’re looking for into the list window, allowing you to view recent tweets as well as add a new column.

Search columns can now be edited as you add new columns, eliminating the need to continue to add new search columns as you refine your search. A single search column can be edited as much as you’d like and your changes are instantly reflected in the results.

TweetDeck also now offers full support for expanded tweets, allowing you to view photo and player cards in the tweet details view for more than 2,000 websites.

Keyboard shortcuts are also introduced in the release. Now you can press “n” to open a window to compose a tweet, “Ctrl+Enter” to send the tweet, and “Esc” to close the compose window as well as any other pop-up windows. More keyboard shortcuts are reportedly on the way.

Will the changes be useful to you? Let us know what you think about the updated TweetDeck in the comments.