Twitter today issued an update to its Catalyst-based Mac app that brings (very basic) support for Touch Bar shortcuts on Mac models that have one, as well as support for the new Sidecar feature in macOS Catalina that lets the app run on an iPad acting as an external display.
As noted by 9to5Mac’s Zac Hall, Touch Bar support appears to be extremely rudimentary at this point, with lots of blank space remaining.
There’s a compose tweet button and the option to toggle between most recent and most relevant timelines. Other sections include buttons for launching preferences, composing direct messages and viewing lists.
Basic as it may be, the new compose tweet button is located well and useful! Hopefully a future version takes Touch Bar support further with icons for switching between timeline, notifications, messages and lists with a tap.
The 8.5 update also brings a fix to an issue that would result in the help center opening in a web browser and another one that killed memory leaks stemming from conversations that are threaded together. Last but not least, they’ve improved the media player so that clicking the video’s playback timeline instantly takes you to that point.
Twitter last fall re-released its abandoned Mac client as a completely rewritten app based on Apple’s Catalyst framework. Although Catalyst enables developers to port their existing iPad apps over to the Mac, the system is currently too rough around the edges, and it shows.
For instance, the new Mac client lacks some common desktop metaphors and keyboard shortcuts, and it may not feel as a truly native macOS app. Apple will hopefully continue evolving Catalyst so that apps written around it are much better.