The people have spoken, prompting Twitter to remove the QuickBar from its official iPhone app.
Added in early March, the QuickBar showed a single random trending topic–sometimes sponsored, sometimes organic–that stuck to the top of the Tweet stream. In response to user backlash, Twitter released an update that made the QuickBar disappear when users scrolled down the stream.
But users still complained, mocking the feature with the #dickbar hashtag, and now Twitter’s relenting. An update, available in the App Store today, removes the QuickBar for good.
Despite the change, Twitter Creative Director Doug Bowman wrote in a blog post that usage of the QuickBar was “incredibly high,” and that Twitter still wants to somehow alert people to what’s going on outside their Tweet streams. “For now, we’re going back to the drawing board to explore the best possible experience for in-app notification and discovery,” he wrote.
Though it’s just one feature, the QuickBar was an important issue for Twitter. Promoted trending topics are a main source of revenue for Twitter, and the QuickBar was a way to bring them to Twitter’s mobile app. At the same time, Twitter’s trying to push people toward its own apps and website instead of third-party clients such as TweetDeck. The company is telling developers to stop making alternative clients, and says it’ll enforce strict standards on existing apps, but Twitter won’t win over users if its own apps are annoying.
As I’ve written for Time’s partner site Technologizer, I was disappointed that Twitter thrust the QuickBar on users. For a service that until now has been careful about how it integrates advertising, the QuickBar was a drastic step, uncharacteristic of Twitter. At least it’s gone now.