Sarah Perez, for TechCrunch:
Following yet another quarter of sluggish user growth, Twitter has changed how its flagship mobile application is categorized on Apple’s iTunes App Store. Instead of competing against Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Pinterest, and others in the crowded “Social networking” category, where Twitter had previously ranked in the top 10, the company has moved its app to the “News” category, where it’s now #1.
When the world’s most profitable application store is terrible at search, I guess this is one way to jump to the top of the charts? I’m still hoping that Phil Schiller’s taking the helm of the App Stores will lead to better search results.[1]
But my stance on Twitter hasn’t changed: it will never be the next Facebook. In my humble opinion, it’s ostensibly for nerds and/or celebrity bot accounts. So, instead of launching misguided attempts at capturing user growth, how about empowering third party developers and supporting power user features?
(From Paul Haddad)
If this were the case already, perhaps Twitter wouldn’t have had to make this category switch. ↩