The UWP Twitter app for Windows 10 had more or less been left for dead. It hadn't been updated in forever, and was missing simple changes to the Twitter service such as the increase from 180 to 240 character tweets. Today, however, Twitter has finally updated its Windows 10 app, changing it from a UWP to PWA. This is good news.
Progressive Web Apps (PWA): What they are, and what they mean for Microsoft
The new Twitter app looks identical to the mobile Twitter PWA website you can find online, except now it's wrapped in a window that makes the app feel native. It also supports push notifications, meaning you don't have to have the app open to see any replies to tweets. It doesn't appear to support live tiles just yet, however.
Because it's the PWA version of Twitter, it has all the latest changes and enhancements you can find on the Twitter service, for better or worse. This includes character increase in tweets, bookmarking tweets, changing to the Twitter timeline algorithm, and a whole lot more.
The benefit here is Twitter no longer has to properly maintain the Twitter app for Windows 10. Now that it's a PWA, any changes it makes to the mobile website should automatically be applied to the PWA app, which can run in any platform that supports PWAs. This should mean Windows 10 users won't get left behind when big changes are introduced to the Twitter service.
Microsoft's Kyle Pflug, who works on Edge, chimed in on Twitter noting that all the features aren't here yet. When the "Spring Creators Update" rolls out more features will come online:
Hey look at that! 👀 (Note: Service worker won't light up in the installed PWA until RS4 ships to stable, so expect improvement soon!) https://t.co/PaKPzqdQkXHey look at that! 👀 (Note: Service worker won't light up in the installed PWA until RS4 ships to stable, so expect improvement soon!) https://t.co/PaKPzqdQkX— Kyle Pflug (@kylealden) March 23, 2018March 23, 2018
The new Twitter PWA app is rolling out as an update for the existing Twitter app for Windows 10, which means you might have to reauthenticate your account once the update is installed. Let us know in the comments what you think about this new update!
Download Twitter for Windows 10 at the Microsoft Store
_Thanks for the tip, @win10fan!
