If Twitter doesn’t decide what it wants to be, someone is going to decide for them

(Note* I had this post stacked to run next week (6/15/15) but in light of today's news that Twitter's CEO is stepping down, I'm posting it now.)

In the past two weeks, two of the best names in Twitter client development- The Iconfactory and Tapbots- each made big releases to their respective softwares.  Tapbots came out with a fantastic revision to their Mac app; with updated Yosemite design and some killer desktop window features.  Meanwhile the Iconfactory did a great upgrade to their iOS apps to add “quote tweet” features and revamped navigation options.

I should know.  I use them both.  And that’s a problem.

See, Twitter is all about keeping up on the latest and so one of the most important features you can have is “timeline sync” or, basically, the idea that every device knows where I left off and can pick up at the same spot in the stream.  It’s a great trick, super useful, but you kinda need the same software on every platform to make it happen.

Now before you go running to the comments thread; yes I know Twitter’s propriety software can do it.  So can apps like Echofon in the Apple-sphere.  I’ve tried them.  They’re not as good.

And the thing is, it’s not so much Tapbots or the Iconfactory’s faults that they aren’t able to attack every platform with vigor.  It’s Twitter’s. I won’t re-hash as there are lots of other good articles that explain the “token” problem.  But bottom line, Twitter is making life difficult for developers and, by extension, its users.

At the core, Twitter is having an identity crisis.  Does it want to be a service- making it’s money on knowledge graphs and stream access?  Or does it want to be a platform, like Facebook, where everything lives inside the apps?

I’m not sure they know.  But that’s the problem- it’s not leadership; it’s chaos.  And it’s making them prime for a buy-out.

Which brings us back the headline.  Twitter needs to decide what it wants to be- a service or a platform.  Trying to be both is like trying to straddle two boats in a raging ocean- pick a ship or get wet.  Because if Twitter doesn’t decide, the choice is going to be taken away.  Either in the form of a buy-out from leaders who hate seeing all that wasted potential.  Or because one (or worse) both “boats” are going to get tired of waiting and speed off.

Leadership requires making the choice.  Otherwise you’re just a jellyfish.

(PS - for what it’s worth, I’d love to see Twitter go the way of a service.  Monetize the knowledge graphs, charge for access to the stream, and serve up ad targeting demographics to developers.  Let software people make great software and quit trying to lock us in to proprietary apps that get creepier by the day…)