Twitter is discontinuing its experimental application, twttr, which the organization had utilized to publicly test new functionalities starting in 2019. The application was initially presented at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2019, and subsequently released to a group of testers in March of the same year. The app’s central purpose was to evaluate alternative designs for discussions organized as threads, including methods for branching replies, applying labels, and utilizing color-coding for responses, among other considerations. Several of these tests ultimately led to the implementation of features within the main Twitter platform, rendering the twttr application obsolete.

The practice of designing in a public forum represented an innovative approach for Twitter.

Typically, organizations conduct internal beta testing, followed by limited-scale A/B tests with a portion of their user base to gather feedback on new concepts. However, with twttr, the company directly involved its users in the earlier phases of the development process.

The twttr project was initially led by Sara Beykpour, who was then Twitter’s Director of Product Management (formerly Sara Haider). She and Twitter Product Lead Kayvon Beykpour later married. Last year, Sara announced her transition to a different role within the company, and Suzanne Xie was appointed as the new product director responsible for conversations, joining Twitter through the acquisition of Lightwell.

Development on twttr seemed to cease around the time of Xie’s arrival, as no further substantial updates were released to the app’s TestFlight user group. Xie subsequently departed from Twitter this fall to join Stripe.

Currently, maintaining the app, which saw limited usage, no longer appears practical for the company.

Twitter revealed its intention to officially shut down twttr today, stating that it is doing so to concentrate on developing new tests directly related to conversations occurring on the primary Twitter platform. The shutdown is taking effect immediately. While the application may remain functional for existing users, this functionality may cease when the TestFlight build expires in 26 days.

Given its lack of recent updates and the absence of newer Twitter features like Topics and Fleets, twttr likely had a small user base. Furthermore, the initial experiment tested on twttr – threaded replies connected by lines – has also been discontinued.

Twitter has not dismissed the possibility of revisiting twttr in the future. A company representative indicated that they are “exploring potential next steps for twttr” as they formulate their future plans for testing new products.