#59

notes/Bear Notes/Tweetbot 6 for iOS Review/TweetBot 6 for iOS Review.md → drafts/TweetBot 6 for iOS Review.md

@@ -1,9 +1,15 @@
 # TweetBot 6 for iOS Review
-![](TweetBot%206%20for%20iOS%20Review/Photo%20Feb%209,%202021%20at%20144503.jpg)
+
 ![Various - Tweetbot 6](https://i.snap.as/OgxERkXE.png)
 
 ## In the bleak face of Twitter’s centralization, Tapbots refuses to give up on its mobile client.
-Were it just I who came to you with only my voice on this cold night, proclaiming the imminent release of a whole numerical version of a third-party mobile Twitter client in 2021, you really would have no choice but to send for the laws, for you’d be left no consideration other than my comprehensive descent into absolute insanity. [807 days ago](https://bilge.world/tweetbot-5-ios-review), I told you lots about the history surrounding the development of Tweetbot 5, which I confidently described as “likely the last com­pet­i­tive third-par­ty Twit­ter app for iOS.” After spending the past few months diving deep into iOS in preparation to [review and reflect](https://github.com/extratone/bilge/issues/45) upon Apple’s current flagship handset, my eyes have been opened to the exponentially-increasing pace of the whole environment’s metamorphosis during the course of my lapsed attention. In the name of progress, I’ve done my best to make a point of looking back, too, yet something astonishingly personally relevant managed to slip past me until just last week: **there is a sixth version of the Tweetbot app**. At this moment, [it is listed on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tweetbot-6-for-twitter/id1527500834) as an “Early Release” version, though its predecessor can still be downloaded by those who’ve already purchased it in the past, like me. `Footnote: Though I was still able to find [a share link](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tweetbot-5-for-twitter/id1018355599), it appears to be unopenable in a regular web browser, which will simply prompt you to open iTunes.`  This is an unusual practice - usually, pre-release versions of iOS apps can only be distributed through Apple’s developer beta testing infrastructure, though Testflight. Notably, Tweetbot developer company Tapbots was [apparently required](https://twitter.com/tapbot_paul/status/1354145779494100992?s=21) to take down Tweetbot 5’s store listing 30 days before releasing Tweetbot 6. `Footnote: I can’t think of any innocuous reason for Apple to do so. A month’s absence of a given software company’s flagship application sounds like a nerve-wracking punishment, nothing more. Discussed at length in this blog post written by someone I don’t have the time to look up, right now: https://mjtsai.com/blog/2021/01/26/tweetbot-6-for-ios/)`
+Were it just I who came to you with only my voice on this cold night, proclaiming the imminent release of a whole numerical version of a third-party mobile Twitter client in 2021, you really would have no choice but to send for the laws, for you’d be left no consideration other than my comprehensive descent into absolute insanity. [807 days ago](https://bilge.world/tweetbot-5-ios-review), I told you lots about the history surrounding the development of Tweetbot 5, which I confidently described as “likely the last com­pet­i­tive third-par­ty Twit­ter app for iOS.” After spending the past few months diving deep into iOS in preparation to [review and reflect](https://github.com/extratone/bilge/issues/45) upon Apple’s current flagship handset, my eyes have been opened to the exponentially-increasing pace of the whole environment’s metamorphosis during the course of my lapsed attention. In the name of progress, I’ve done my best to make a point of looking back, too, yet something astonishingly personally relevant managed to slip past me until just last week: **there is a sixth version of the Tweetbot app**. At this moment, [it is listed on the App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tweetbot-6-for-twitter/id1527500834) as an “Early Release” version, though its predecessor can still be downloaded by those who’ve already purchased it in the past, like me. 
+
+[^1]: Though I was still able to find [a share link](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tweetbot-5-for-twitter/id1018355599), it appears to be unopenable in a regular web browser, which will simply prompt you to open iTunes.
+
+This is an unusual practice - usually, pre-release versions of iOS apps can only be distributed through Apple’s developer beta testing infrastructure, through Testflight. Notably, Tweetbot developer company Tapbots was [apparently required](https://twitter.com/tapbot_paul/status/1354145779494100992?s=21) to take down Tweetbot 5’s store listing 30 days before releasing Tweetbot 6. 
+
+[^2]: I can’t think of any innocuous reason for Apple to do so. A month’s absence of a given software company’s flagship application sounds like a nerve-wracking punishment, nothing more. Discussed at length in [this blog post](https://mjtsai.com/blog/2021/01/26/tweetbot-6-for-ios) written by someone I don’t have the time to look up, right now.
 
 https://soundcloud.com/compaqclub/macstories-on-tweetbot-6
 
@@ -15,7 +21,6 @@ I’ve paused everything else to write you on this, though, because the story is
 
 Here’s to Chaim for exposing me to a perspective I never would have otherwise considered: Tweetbot’s lack of push notifications as a *positive*. If you’re wondering, no, this new app does not ~yet~ include any additional notification integration, and it’s not clear whether or not it’s on Tapbots future roadmap for the app, or where. As for the reality of integrating Tweetbot 6 into your current Twitter use, I stand by my argument	that deleting the native Twitter app isn’t really an option if you plan to ever view your notifications on your phone. The popular assumption (I assume) if you’re still reading is that you are a “poweruser,” meaning details about my own configuration are probably irrelevant. If by chance you’ve just downloaded Tweetbot for the first time, you should take the time to disable notifications for Tweetbot entirely, but leave them on for the native Twitter app, even if you decide to banish it to your App Library. Before I began any work on this review, I made sure to swap in Tweetbot 6 where the native app had been in my dock for several years, now. I originally pushed the native app all the way to page 6, but immediately found this extreme. Instead, I put it in the bottom-right corner in my second screen, as you can see in the screenshot below (which also serves as proof, if you needed it.)
 
-![](TweetBot%206%20for%20iOS%20Review/Photo%20Feb%2010,%202021%20at%20150834.jpg)
 ![Tweetbot vs Native Twitter Proof](https://i.snap.as/WMyY9kLc.png)
 
 I should also note how much my own engagement on Twitter has diminished in the past 3-5 years. Not to manifest tiny violins - in turn, my engagement on (and investment in) [Mastodon](http://bit.ly/dbmasto) has increased exponentially, and it’s of a *much* higher quality. I bring it up for context’s sake: I can afford to prioritize Tweetbot in my Twitter use because of how few daily notifications I get - a number which is unusual for someone who uses Twitter as much as I do. Inevitably, my own use is once again going to factor heavily in this work, as is the significance of my relationship with Twitter, generally, in my life. If you didn’t already know, I’ve met basically all of my friends since high school through Twitter. As of this moment, my private “Friends” Twitter List includes 149 accounts, and I’ve spent more than 10 years, now, reading almost every single one of their Tweets. I have been as critical of the service as anyone, but - whether or not either of us are willing to acknowledge it, wholly - I believe the intimacy of this arrangement to exceed that of any in-person relationship *I* have ever had. `Footnote: Though I have been trying unsuccessfully to write more on this dynamic for years, I still intend to do so, one day.` Reading the random thoughts of these people seconds or minutes after they’ve popped into their heads for all this time has been an experience unique to the format Twitter pioneered, if not to the service, itself. I have no choice but to acknowledge that I am *deeply* invested in not just Twitter, but Twitter’s less-than-visible Lists feature, emotionally and intellectually. When I hit my [follow limit](https://twitter.com/neoyokel/status/1281646353102147584), several years ago, Lists also became my single means of acquiring new connections on the network. If it were to be removed, I would lose this ability, entirely, as well as any reasonable means of communicating with any of my friends.
@@ -28,37 +33,35 @@ Perhaps you understand, now, why I have [written](https://bilge.world/twitter-li
 
 Even after reading this multiple times, it still was not obvious to me what it was talking about, and I was unable to find precisely *zero* visuals on The World Wide Web of this action taking place, so I recorded and uploaded [the video embedded above](https://youtu.be/IO-ZSD-vymc). Good God, how I wish I’d been a more detail-oriented young man! I’ll be privatizing my self-punishment from here on out, though, so bear with me.
 
-![](TweetBot%206%20for%20iOS%20Review/Photo%20Feb%2011,%202021%20at%20141603.jpg)
 ![Lists Integration | Tweetbot 6](https://i.snap.as/oZ5u34QP.png)
 
 The discourse surrounding Tapbots’ recent announcement has already reached a higher decibel count than I would have ever expected, so it’s obvious there are plenty of *users* who still [love Tweetbot](https://twitter.com/neoyokel/status/1064579914538602496), and you already know from the beforelinked stories that *The Verge* has also stood firmly by it as the preferred Twitter experience. It takes a wee bit of digging, though, to discover the subtle bets on both Tweetbots and Lists from no less than Apple, Inc., itself. In the official Apple Shortcuts Gallery, a curated list entitled “Twitter Better” includes “[Open Twitter Lists](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/161bb19df7ee47fa8b31a0c0fb43307b)” at number 1. In 5th position is “[Open in Tweetbot](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/c148d4f0dfbc45d6bf8bad6bb67d519c),” and “[Open in Twitter App](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/c45206139b9e47eb8de780e686350022)” (3rd,) is configured *by default* to first ask you to choose between Tweetbot and Twitter’s native app, despite its title.
 
-![](TweetBot%206%20for%20iOS%20Review/Photo%20Feb%2011,%202021%20at%20143957.jpg)
 ![Tweetbot Bets in Shortcuts](https://i.snap.as/sZXfdk8L.png)
 
 As for App Store rankings, the fact that Tweetbot 5 was forcibly removed from public listings makes it impossible to meaningfully judge recent popularity of Tweetbot on iPhone/iPad. Its MacOS-based sibling, though (called Tweetbot 3,) was the *second most popular* paid app [on the Mac App Store](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tweetbot-3-for-twitter/id1384080005) as of [February 6th, 2020](https://i.snap.as/Uq8bRMF8.png). That’s the day I borrowed my Mom’s MacBook Pro for a short while to check up on MacOS Big Sur, when I downloaded the current version (3.5.2, if you wanted to know) of Tapbots’ desktop Twitter client and [messed around with it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=219&v=vHDNdMux16g) enough to tell you that it’s as wonderful as ever. (Had I not switched back to Windows as my primary desktop OS a decade ago, I would use it every single day.)
 
-![](TweetBot%206%20for%20iOS%20Review/Photo%20Feb%2011,%202021%20at%20150738.jpg)
 ![Tweetbot 3 for MacOS Version 3.5.2](https://i.snap.as/1bbw5iFH.png)
 
 I suspect most active Twitter users in 2021 would be even more surprised to discover Tweetbot’s remaining, discreet hold on today’s Twitter experience than I was, assuming most of them joined more recently than myself and those I regularly interact with. For the sake of this Post, I reached out to Tapbots with an interview request about “Tweetbot’s roadmap, Apple’s requirement that [they] remove 5 from the App Store 30 days beforehand, and why [they’ve] decided to take this (risky, imo) bet on making our lives better,” though I don’t expect a reply, which is fine. They *did* respond to my support request regarding hardware keyboard shortcut support very quickly, saying they’ll look into it. (Without being verbose, I’ll just tell you that if a near future update to the app fixes the F and ⌘ + R 
 shortcuts, I *will* shit out my whole ass.)
 
-![](TweetBot%206%20for%20iOS%20Review/Photo%20Feb%2011,%202021%20at%20191851.jpg)
 ![Poll Support in Tweetbot 6](https://i.snap.as/kCCCZzh5.png)
 
 ## Present
-Before I dig into the controversy and hypotheticals surrounding what Tweetbot 6 might become, let’s take a moment to qualify it vs all of one’s options to interact with Twitter on iOS *currently* (as in, Feb 11, 2021 at 19:24.) It’s almost certainly premature to do so, but skeptical readers would note, I’m sure, that its listing on the App Store is “early release” in name only, that I have just spent money on this specific version, which should therefore render inert the normal exceptions a review would make for beta or pre-release software. 
+Before I dig into the controversy and hypotheticals surrounding what Tweetbot 6 might become, let’s take a moment to qualify it vs all of one’s options to interact with Twitter on iOS *currently* (as in, Feb 11, 2021 at 19:24.) It’s almost certainly premature to do so, but skeptical readers would note, I’m sure, that its listing on the App Store is “early release” in name only, that I have just spent money on this specific version, which should therefore render inert the normal exceptions a review would make for beta or pre-release software.
+
+<iframe src="https://cybre.space/@caesarologia/105718644120433124/embed" class="mastodon-embed" style="max-width: 100%; border: 0" width="400" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
+
+
 
 
 
-![](TweetBot%206%20for%20iOS%20Review/Photo%20Feb%2011,%202021%20at%20181459.jpg)
 ![All Tweetbot Themes](https://i.snap.as/W884QXpS.png)
 
 ## The Subscription Issue
 Notice that almost every single one of the stories linked above contains mention of Tweetbot’s move to recurring subscriptions in its header. 
 
 Now that you’re familiar with my personal investment in Twitter and Tweetbot, perhaps you’re better equipped to understand 
 
-
-#ios #tb6
+#software