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Twitterrific, and a lot of these early iOS clients, really helped defined the Twitter service, and even more so, our interface idioms for mobile apps. Right fr

Twitterrific, and a lot of these early iOS clients, really helped defined the Twitter service, and even more so, our interface idioms for mobile apps. Right from the bird’s mouth, which by the way, they created, not Twitter… “Since 2007, Twitterrific helped define the shape of the Twitter experience. It was the first desktop client, the first mobile client, one of the very first apps in the App Store, an Apple Design award winner, and it even helped redefine the word “tweet” in the dictionary. Ollie, Twitterrific’s bluebird mascot, was so popular it even prompted Twitter themselves to later adopt a bluebird logo of their very own. Our little app made a big dent on the world!” And “pull-to-refresh”? Tweetie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pull-to-refresh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pull-to-refresh

selykg 4y ago
Tweetie was a great app. That was the last time I was really actually "interested" in Twitter. It was all sort of downhill for me. But I remember pull to refresh being an absolutely mind bending feature at the time. It just felt natural.
- MattRix 4y ago
  For some additional info, Twitter acquired Tweetie and turned it into the official Twitter iOS app.
dusing 4y ago
I agree, but it is 2023 now, it’s not super important how Twitter was founded.
- amatecha 4y ago
  Uhhh... I mean, the events that came before are what led to where we are today, so it's pretty worthwhile to understand the history of software, tech, and humanity for that matter. This colossal breadth of tech we're using every day has been a development of centuries, and Twitter and its development is a piece of that. Dismissing that history is a disservice to our community and to our future. Yeah, where a feature came from is not of news-headline importance, but it's relevant to us and our understanding of how software and services evolve over time, with involvement from their community of users and fellow industry members.
  - shawn-butler 4y ago
    The people in these comments espousing "history"and want to blame every bad behaviour on the new owner seem to have a very short memory. Twitter has always given a proud middle finger to third party clients to suit its own strategy. Firehose access terminated to analytics companies after it acquired Gnip: "...After acquiring Gnip in May of 2014, we decided to bring all data licensing activity in-house in order to better serve our customers and partners..." When they acquired Tweetdeck in 2011, they started cutting off apps who "'mimic' products, services and experiences that Twitter itself offers" They banned apps like UberMedia (UberTwitter), twidroyd and UberCurrent over trademarks and having the audacity to offer DM longer than 140 chars. There are dozens of more instances. They have literally never been a platform or ecosystem friendly company. Ever. They used 3rd party apps to gain traction than killed them. How is this recent behavior any different?
    - amatecha 4y ago
      I think my thread was probably not the relevant one to ask this question in? I was contradicting buddy's claim that history doesn't matter. I believe it does. I wasn't saying anything about the new ownership or actions thereof.
    - dmix 4y ago
      I'm also not convinced that Twitter (and it's community/prior management which yes already neutered the API) was some holy thing that needed to be protected and we should all care if it destroys itself. Twitter getting a fire under its ass to become better or die off is not the worst case scenario in my mind. At least as far as I can tell everyone is still using it with rare exceptions. The people most likely to post alarmist and FUDy stuff also tends to be the people least likely to abandon social media for some higher social/moral purposes. Once enough time passes and we have enough inside information (and less current day emotion) we'll be able to better analyze these decisions and trends from a macro perspective. Twitter encourages debating things immediately with limited information on overall strategy and actual outcomes/consequences, so ironically I'm also critiquing the very thing Twitter morphed the Zeitgeist into, but oh well.
- taxyovio 4y ago
  People are still very much interested in how the big bang happened by the way.
- perardi 4y ago
  I disagree, because it is 2023 now. Twitter was not, well, Twitter without the users and developers. Hashtags, replies, threads…users and developers. Not the product managers. And that’s relevant because: if you’re developing a product today, probably worth thinking about how so many features and practices are an emergent property of how it’s used, and not what you are narrowly planning for.
- b1ue64 4y ago
  It's 200 BC now, it's not important how Carthage and Rome were founded.
gernb 4y ago
So they're the ones I need to punch in the face for "pull-to-refresh"? (jk) Actually though, I absolutely hate that Chrome iOS has pull-to-refresh. I've never in my life wanted to refresh a page by pulling and instead what happens is once or twice a month I'm filling out a form or typing a post and I need to scroll up. I do it instinctively, chrome refreshes, I lose everything I just typed. Thanks Chrome
- Me1000 4y ago
  Well, to be fair, pull to refresh is an adaptation of the original interaction. It was originally "pull to load newer posts". Remember that a twitter timeline would have the newest posts at the top and the older posts below it. So when a user would return to the app, they would keep scrolling up until they reached the top. Then if they kept scrolling triggering the iOS rubber-banding behavior, it would load newer posts. Then the newer posts would be rendered above where you were in the list. Refreshing the whole page wasn't the intended purpose.
- amatecha 4y ago
  Yeah, pull-to-refresh doesn't make sense on a web browser at all IMO. Its obvious, specific application is "refreshing a vertical list of entries, typically populated via a network request". This action doesn't map well to "loading a page of content". One fundamental point of the interaction is that you're already scrolling to the top of the list because you're viewing a reverse-chronologically-sorted list of network-driven content. If, after hitting the top of the list, you keep trying to scroll up, you're already suggesting to the software that you want to see more. On a website, this implication doesn't apply. I'm just trying to get to the top of the page.
- pornel 4y ago
  What's the point of using Chrome on iOS if it is forced by Apple to be just a thin skin on top of Safari, and you don't even like the UI? BTW, the Firefox-flavored Safari skin has a regular refresh button.
  - kitsunesoba 4y ago

selykg 4y ago

Tweetie was a great app. That was the last time I was really actually "interested" in Twitter. It was all sort of downhill for me. But I remember pull to refresh being an absolutely mind bending feature at the time. It just felt natural.

MattRix 4y ago
For some additional info, Twitter acquired Tweetie and turned it into the official Twitter iOS app.

dusing 4y ago

I agree, but it is 2023 now, it’s not super important how Twitter was founded.

amatecha 4y ago
Uhhh... I mean, the events that came before are what led to where we are today, so it's pretty worthwhile to understand the history of software, tech, and humanity for that matter. This colossal breadth of tech we're using every day has been a development of centuries, and Twitter and its development is a piece of that. Dismissing that history is a disservice to our community and to our future. Yeah, where a feature came from is not of news-headline importance, but it's relevant to us and our understanding of how software and services evolve over time, with involvement from their community of users and fellow industry members.
- shawn-butler 4y ago
  The people in these comments espousing "history"and want to blame every bad behaviour on the new owner seem to have a very short memory. Twitter has always given a proud middle finger to third party clients to suit its own strategy. Firehose access terminated to analytics companies after it acquired Gnip: "...After acquiring Gnip in May of 2014, we decided to bring all data licensing activity in-house in order to better serve our customers and partners..." When they acquired Tweetdeck in 2011, they started cutting off apps who "'mimic' products, services and experiences that Twitter itself offers" They banned apps like UberMedia (UberTwitter), twidroyd and UberCurrent over trademarks and having the audacity to offer DM longer than 140 chars. There are dozens of more instances. They have literally never been a platform or ecosystem friendly company. Ever. They used 3rd party apps to gain traction than killed them. How is this recent behavior any different?
  - amatecha 4y ago
    I think my thread was probably not the relevant one to ask this question in? I was contradicting buddy's claim that history doesn't matter. I believe it does. I wasn't saying anything about the new ownership or actions thereof.
  - dmix 4y ago
    I'm also not convinced that Twitter (and it's community/prior management which yes already neutered the API) was some holy thing that needed to be protected and we should all care if it destroys itself. Twitter getting a fire under its ass to become better or die off is not the worst case scenario in my mind. At least as far as I can tell everyone is still using it with rare exceptions. The people most likely to post alarmist and FUDy stuff also tends to be the people least likely to abandon social media for some higher social/moral purposes. Once enough time passes and we have enough inside information (and less current day emotion) we'll be able to better analyze these decisions and trends from a macro perspective. Twitter encourages debating things immediately with limited information on overall strategy and actual outcomes/consequences, so ironically I'm also critiquing the very thing Twitter morphed the Zeitgeist into, but oh well.
taxyovio 4y ago
People are still very much interested in how the big bang happened by the way.
perardi 4y ago
I disagree, because it is 2023 now. Twitter was not, well, Twitter without the users and developers. Hashtags, replies, threads…users and developers. Not the product managers. And that’s relevant because: if you’re developing a product today, probably worth thinking about how so many features and practices are an emergent property of how it’s used, and not what you are narrowly planning for.
b1ue64 4y ago
It's 200 BC now, it's not important how Carthage and Rome were founded.

gernb 4y ago

So they're the ones I need to punch in the face for "pull-to-refresh"? (jk) Actually though, I absolutely hate that Chrome iOS has pull-to-refresh. I've never in my life wanted to refresh a page by pulling and instead what happens is once or twice a month I'm filling out a form or typing a post and I need to scroll up. I do it instinctively, chrome refreshes, I lose everything I just typed. Thanks Chrome

Me1000 4y ago
Well, to be fair, pull to refresh is an adaptation of the original interaction. It was originally "pull to load newer posts". Remember that a twitter timeline would have the newest posts at the top and the older posts below it. So when a user would return to the app, they would keep scrolling up until they reached the top. Then if they kept scrolling triggering the iOS rubber-banding behavior, it would load newer posts. Then the newer posts would be rendered above where you were in the list. Refreshing the whole page wasn't the intended purpose.
amatecha 4y ago
Yeah, pull-to-refresh doesn't make sense on a web browser at all IMO. Its obvious, specific application is "refreshing a vertical list of entries, typically populated via a network request". This action doesn't map well to "loading a page of content". One fundamental point of the interaction is that you're already scrolling to the top of the list because you're viewing a reverse-chronologically-sorted list of network-driven content. If, after hitting the top of the list, you keep trying to scroll up, you're already suggesting to the software that you want to see more. On a website, this implication doesn't apply. I'm just trying to get to the top of the page.
pornel 4y ago
What's the point of using Chrome on iOS if it is forced by Apple to be just a thin skin on top of Safari, and you don't even like the UI? BTW, the Firefox-flavored Safari skin has a regular refresh button.
- kitsunesoba 4y ago