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Meet ‘The Nest’: Cross-platform, multi-app Twitter sync done right

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 7:14PM EST
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When it comes to Twitter, we’re just as addicted as every other poor soul who got sucked in. We’re constantly connected on our phones and computers, always checking our timelines, and we crouch in a corner and cry every time the fail whale rears its ugly head. As addictive as the service is though, Twitter is often asleep at the wheel when it comes to features. Luckily, that’s where third-party developers come into play and when it comes to Twitter apps, there are now thousands of choices across every platform imaginable. Even once you’ve found your Twitter apps of choice, however, one of the most annoying things about being addicted to Twitter is constantly seeing the same tweets as you move back and forth between your phone, PC tablet and other devices. What’s more, when you make changes to your mobile client — say, adding a new list column — you have to make the same changes all over again in your other clients. But what if there was a better way?

MetroTwit developer Pixel Tucker and Rowi developer Hidden Pineapple on Friday took the wraps off a new project they’re preparing to roll out soon. Dubbed “The Nest,” their new joint endeavor is a cloud-based backend solution that allows their respective apps to sync data across platforms — MetroTwit, of course, being a popular Windows desktop app for Twitter, and Rowi being a terrific Windows Phone app. In its first iteration, The Nest will sync two crucial types of data: column configurations and unread tweet state. Add or delete a column in one app, and the same column will be added or deleted in the other. Read tweets in one app, and you won’t have to bother reading them again in the other. Fantastic.

The Nest functionality will be added to each app in forthcoming updates, and Erik Porter of Hidden Pineapple tells us the new versions of each app should become available in the next few weeks. The team will also be developing The Nest actively, and it looks like the initial implementation is just the start. We tried to get the tight-lipped developers to reveal their future plans for this great tech, but unfortunately they wouldn’t budge. We can dream, however, and we would love to see Hidden Pineapple and Pixel Tucker allow other developers on other platforms make use of The Nest — imagine being able to sync Twitter columns, read status and other data across your Windows Phone, your personal Mac PC, your Windows PC at work and your iPad 2 tablet. Despite the fact that we couldn’t get a confirmation out of The Nest team, we see this scenario as a definite possibility moving forward and we’ll be keeping a close eye on this project. In the meantime, MetroTwit and Rowi users should get ready to see this great new functionality introduced in the coming weeks.

[Via istartedsomething]

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Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.