Twitter has announced that it will be permanently ending the support of its app for Google’s wearable technology, Google Glass. This means that users will no longer be able to send tweets, retweets or photos from the device which went on sale during July in the UK.
News broken via Reddit
The news was broken by Reddit user Pete761, who contacted Glass Support when his app disappeared only to receive the response that Twitter is now unavailable.
If Glass wearers uninstall Twitter they will then be unable to reinstall it, and if Google Glass Apps is loaded, the Twitter app icon is no longer visible.
Twitter, which was first released for Glass in May 2013, quickly became one of the most popular apps with Glass users.
What now for Google and Twitter?
At this moment in time, it isn’t clear where this leaves the relationship between Google and Twitter as there has been no official statement from either party.
This latest news from Twitter follows on from a turbulent few months in which the social network has entered into legal disputes with both the US government and Twitpic.
There have been problems between the two in the past when Twitter decided to stop sharing its tweet data with Google in 2011. This came after they had already struck up a relationship to allow Twitter updates to appear in real time Google searches. The move came as a surprise, as does the news which has surfaced this week.
All is not lost though for Twitter users, as many suspect that there will soon be third party alternatives available.
What does this mean for Google Glass?
Losing such an influential name this early on in the life of Glass will undoubtedly come as a blow to Google and Glass users alike. Google’s silence on the matter has left speculation about this development rife within the tech community.
Even without Twitter, Glass still offers plenty of innovative apps which enable users to do anything from translate road signs (Word Lens), receive the latest news stories (CNN Breaking News) and discover the stars and planets above using real time GPS (Starchart).