Twitter shutting down app used to manage business accounts on February 3

In June, Twitter launched Dashboard, a dedicated app brands can use to manage their various accounts, but seven months later, that’s all about to change. Today, the company announced that it will be shuttering Dashboard on February 3, though no specific reason was given. Twitter did say that all scheduled tweets will still be posted as scheduled and “can be seen/updated from TweetDeck.”

https://twitter.com/dashboardapp/status/818891867274153984

It seems Twitter Dashboard just wasn’t quite ready for prime time. The app launched in the U.S. last summer on both iOS and as a desktop app and was seen as a competitor to Hootsuite and Facebook’s Mentions app. And while Twitter Engage still exists, Dashboard was geared more toward businesses than individuals.

At the time, the company explained that brands have a difficult time creating what should be “authentic” connections, citing a lack of time and resources. Noah Pepper, a product and engineering manager at Twitter, wrote, “It gives business owners a clear picture about what’s being said about their businesses, lets them schedule tweets, and offers insights about their tweet performance.”

It could be that Twitter realized it no longer needed to have multiple apps and will instead pour its effort into Twitter Engage, as the sole brand and celebrity app that can be used while on the go. Another thought is that Dashboard just didn’t gain enough traction to justify its continued existence, perhaps endemic of a larger problem with Twitter.

Because it was only available as a public beta, it’s not totally surprising to see Dashboard go. However, in a tweet, Twitter said that it hopes to bring the “best features” from the app to the broader community sometime in the future. No word yet on what those specific features are.

https://twitter.com/dashboardapp/status/818891977345232897

We’ve reached out to Twitter for additional comment and will update if we hear back.