After several months of languishing without any updates as new features were added to the Twitter service, the official Twitter app for Windows 10 has finally been updated and made available in the Microsoft Store.
Unfortunately, the updated app looks like it is a Hosted Web Application (HWA) which is basically a web wrapper around the mobile Twitter website aka Twitter Lite.
The new app as it is has some limitations though and they will impact the way some power users use Twitter.
Here is my list so far:
- There is no app link in the Share Dialog so no quick sharing from Microsoft Edge or other areas of the OS.
- No theme option to choose either a dark or light appearance for the app.
No support for pasting images from the Snipping Tool, which are stored in the clipboard, directly into the tweet compose box in the app.You are also unable to post a copied image file from the clipboard into the app. This means the only way to get images in a tweet is to use the image icon in the tweet composition box.
Update 02 April 2018: You can now paste snipped images into the Twitter PWA compose box but it only supports images that you grab with the Snipping Tool.
You might be able to trigger the update by using this direct link to the updated listing in the Microsoft Store.
Update: I exchanged a couple of tweets with some folks from Microsoft and did some local testing and so I have a couple more items relating to this new updated Twitter app for Windows 10.
- Currently this update is available for Windows Insiders only as an open beta according to someone from Microsoft via Twitter. I have been able to download the updated app on devices running Slow, Fast, and Skip Ahead builds. I attempted to grab it on a production device running Windows 10 Version 1709 but it is not showing up on that system.
- This same person on Twitter confirmed that this is a PWA and that it supersedes or standardizes the idea behind HWA’s.
I will provide additional information if/when it becomes available.
