Posted in: iOS, Online Services, Web Browsers

Twitter lost 4 million users in Q4, blames iOS 8

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While reporting its Q4 earnings, Twitter revealed that it added 4 million new monthly active users (MAUs) in the quarter, bringing the total number to 288 million, which was clearly short of the 292 million figure expected by analysts. But Twitter is not to blame for that, or so say its executives, who are claiming that the company lost 4 million users due to Apple’s roll-out of iOS 8.

The company says that it lost 3 million of those users after Apple rolled out iOS8, effectively changing the way the Shared Links feature in the Safari web browser works.

For those who are not in the know, the Shared Links feature was added to the mobile web browser in iOS 7, allowing you to see links shared by people you follow. While earlier the feature allowed Safari to automatically request information from Twitter’s servers, that changed with iOS 8 wherein the information is fetched only when you actually open up Shared Links.

As for the remaining 1 million users Twitter lost, they couldn’t get their passwords to work because of an encryption problem related to the microblogging service’s integration with iOS, CEO Dick Costollo said.

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