Twitter drops Google Glass app

The social network and microblogging platform has decided to simply stop developing for Google's smart headset.

The social network and microblogging platform has decided to simply stop developing for Google's smart headset.

First discovered by a Reddit user, Twitter's decision suggests that the firm decided it was not worth the time or effort to continue offering a Google Glass version of its mobile app even though developing for the device has become progressively simpler over recent months.

Back in 2012, Google Glass was being touted as a controversial vision of a wearable technology future but two years later the headset still has no known general public launch date and now has to compete with phablets and smartwatches for tech-savvy consumers' attention.

It is still difficult to understand an everyday use case for something like Google Glass but one of the few apps that worked really well on the device was Twitter.

Seeing a tweet in your peripheral vision while going about your daily life is actually less distracting and more informative than having to whip out a phone every time there is a notification chime.

As users on the Reddit thread also pointed out, the Twitter app was also great for capturing and sharing photos captured spontaneously via Google Glass.

Despite Twitter's decision to stop supporting Google Glass, it looks as though the consumer version of the headset is still in the pipeline. A poster claiming to be part of the Glass development team confirmed that the consumer version is still going ahead and hinted that the release of an updated Explorer version could be coming soon.

Twitter is currently struggling to grow its user base. In its latest figures, published on Monday, it revealed it now has 284 million average monthly users, meaning that over the past 12 months it has only managed to attract 23 million new active users. It is trying new services and features in order to stimulate interest including adding a 'buy' button so that users can purchase items in tweets.