Twitter pulls out app from Apple Watch, but users will continue to get notifications

Just when Twitter users were rejoicing the big news from Twitter today, the microblogging platform seems to have pulled out another trick from its hat. Merely hours ago, Twitter almost doubled its character limit from 140 to 280 to enable its users to get their word across in more elaborately than before. Now some Twitter users have noticed another change: the Twitter Apple Watch app has disappeared!

The Twitter app was one of the first third-party apps compatible with the Apple watch. But following the big news, many users noticed the app missing from their Apple Watch. Twitter's iTunes App Store page no longer lists the app's compatibility with Apple Watch. The app's disappearance was first noticed by users who had updated to the latest version of WatchOS for Apple Watch. In particular, the Twitter app for Apple Watch may have been removed along with the roll out of version 7.8 of Twitter for iOS.

However,  users who used Twitter on their Apple Watch need not be completely disheartened. While the removal of Twitter Apple Watch app means that users cannot browse Twitter from the Watch, notifications will actually have more content than before. Users could expect a better notification experience than before. Apparently, Apple Watch will mirror the iPhone notifications. That means users will still be able to see who sent a reply and what it says and then respond.

A Twitter spokesperson confirming the same said, "We heard from people that notifications were the most helpful part of the Apple Watch Twitter Experience. With this, we are focusing on supporting more robust, media-rich notifications. We are committed to providing the very best Twitter experience on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Apple Watch, and we'll continue to iterate and improve our apps across all platforms."

This isn't the first time a major tech company has pulled its app out of Apple Watch. Just a few months back even Google stopped offering support for Google Maps on Apple Watch citing compatibility issues. Amazon too pulled out its shopping app from Apple Watch recently.
Smartwatches in general are not the ideal platform for traditional mobile apps, mainly due to their size which makes it difficult for app makers like Amazon to make their shopping app usable on a wearable device.

Many removals have gone unnoticed, indicating that the apps weren't as heavily used on Apple Watch as the companies would have hoped. But, it looks like Twitter's removal from Apple Watch hasn't gone down well with at least some users who appreciated the ability to check their feeds and reply via their Apple Watch's interface.

Moreover, unlike shopping apps and other social apps, like Facebook or Instagram, Twitter faced no issues with its Apple Watch App, largely when it came to text-based updates (limited to 140 characters) and users found it handy because they could instantly glance Twitter updates on their Watch. Apple Watch's Twitter app also allowed users to select the type of notifications that they receive and block out spams.