The iconostasisthe maker of a popular third-party Twitter client, Twitter awesome, which was among those killed off by Twitter under Elon Musk, is hoping to bounce back from its losses with a new app that combines your social media, news and notifications into one experience. The application, compiled “Project Tapestry” as it launches on Kickstarter, will support Twitter/X alternatives like Bluesky, Mastodon, and Tumblr, and possibly Instagram Threads when its developer API becomes available. However, it won’t support the X itself due to the company’s ban on third-party apps.
A working prototype of Project Tapestry has already been developed, and if The Iconfactory manages to raise $100,000 in funding through Kickstarter, it will further develop the app and release it to the public.
as described, Project Tapestry aims to organize today’s fragmented online media into one interface, allowing users to follow a variety of sources in one place. For example, you could monitor your favorite blogs, news sites, social networks and webcomics, as well as critical updates that came out on Twitter, such as weather alerts or earthquake warnings.
This would involve working with any site that offers an RSS feed, which most blogs and news sites already do (without a paywall). It will also integrate with startups offering alternatives to Twitter, such as Bluesky, which is powered by the new AT Protocol, and Mastodon, which will be powered by another emerging web standard, ActivityPub. (The company doesn’t plan on Threads support at launch, but will consider adding that as well if an API becomes available, we’re told).
Other planned sources include Tumblr, Micro.blog, USGS Earthquakes, NOAA Satellite, and GO Comics. However, Facebook and Instagram will not be available.
Once set up, Tapestry will organize all your updates into one feed, which will appear in chronological order. Additionally, the app could remove duplicates to reduce clutter — like when someone posts a link on multiple social networks at once. In the new app, these reports could be combined, so you only see the post once.
Image Credits: The iconostasis
The team envisions making the Project Tapestry timeline something that anyone could integrate with by writing plugins using JavaScript that would translate between the web and the native iOS app. For example, Raspberry Pi developers could send custom notifications to their schedule through this interface.
Other notable features include the ability to mark items as read, remember your reading position in the timeline, support for light and dark themes, and a few more copied from the company’s heady Twitter days — like mute and “mute.” The last was a popular choice for those who wanted to know what was being said minimizing the tweets and providing a brief description of what was hidden.
If the company’s stretch goal of $150,000 on Kickstarter is reached, the team will also work on a more advanced search feature that will let you search the social sources and posts you already follow instead of the wider web. This aspect sounds especially promising at a time when the quality of Google Search is is reduced due to SEO spam and Pages written with AI.
This isn’t the first time Iconfactory has turned to Kickstarter. He also used the site to fund the development of Twitterrific for Mac in 2017, which was funded in 20 days.
Although Iconfactory today makes many apps for creativity, entertainment and gaming, Twitterrific’s shutdown was difficult for the company and its team.
Laments The Iconfactory’s Principal/Designer Gedeon Maheuxthe new project came about because the team had “invested so much time and energy into Twitter,” but then Twitter “walled[ed] in their garden and people like us were forced to leave,” he says. “Now you have friends who are in different services, different places, and it’s hard to keep track of them.”
The need for crowdsourced funds was also necessary due to the loss of Twitterrific.
“The death of Twitterrific really hurt… Killing third-party Twitter apps really put a dent [our revenue] because Twitterrific was one of our bread and butter apps. It really fueled growth and allowed us to do these things that we loved,” notes Maheux. Since shutting down Twitterrific, he says, the company has yet to “close the gap.”
“Hopefully Tapestry will help with that,” he adds.
Twitterrific may not be a household name like Twitter once was, but the app has had a significant influence on Twitter culture.
The Twitter client was one of the first to market and launched using a bird logo, which was then adopted by other customers. Later, Twitter began using a bird as its official logo in 2010. Iconfactory also contributed the word “tweet” to the vocabulary surrounding the use of Twitter and created a fix for missing “Edit” button from Twitter in 2014 by creating a feature that will delete and repost a tweet, giving the appearance of edits.
By understanding how to tap into the social app market, Tapestry has the potential to now solve new pain points for users leaving Twitter/X — a way to follow the news, people and information that matter to them , not even if they go.
The Kickstarter goal of $100,000 will allow The Iconfactory to complete the initial application and publish through the App Store. Since launching their crowdfunding appeal this morning, they’ve raised over $46,000.
The company has historically been averse to the idea of taking on venture capital as it wants to remain independent, but if Tapestry takes off after going public, Maheux admits “never say never” when it comes to raising capital from outside. In the meantime, though, if you want to use an app like Tapestry, you should I offer towards its creation.
