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Arrival Time app Twist shuts down suddenly

It’s a sad day for fans of Twist, the ETA/arrival time app and service. After working intermittently for the last four of five days, the website was taken down and the app was removed from the App Store over the weekend.

The developers confirmed that Twist was shuttered on April 5, 2014 in a Tweet:

When I reached out for comment, they replied:

Twist was an extremely useful app that earned a permanent location on my home screen because I used it daily (sometimes several times per day) to coordinate my arrival time with my wife. When you have kids and are constantly picking them up or dropping them off somewhere Twist was incredibly useful in keeping your significant other apprised of your arrival time. Many a meal was saved because of Twist.

I reviewed Twist for The Apple Core on ZDNet in August 2012:

Enter Twist, a phenomenal iOS app that takes location tracking to a whole new level.

Instead of forcing your opt-in followers to constantly refresh a map to see your location Twist automatically lets them know when you’re going to arrive via push notification. That way, if you make an unscheduled stop, or get caught in traffic, the person/people that you’re meeting are automatically updated with your new arrival time. And it’s the automated part that makes Twist so cool. You don’t have to call or text them when you’re going to be early or late, Twist takes care of it for you.

Some have recommended a similar service called Glympse (free, App Store) as a viable Twist replacement but I haven’t tried it yet. I’ll put Glympse through its paces and report back on my experiences.

How you keep friends, colleagues and spouse apprised of your arrival time?

twist-ios-ogrady2

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.

17 replies on “Arrival Time app Twist shuts down suddenly”

I used Twist a lot when it was still working and have been using Glympse since it stopped but it doesn’t meet up to Twist as I really like the automatic notification of arrival function. I recently found an app called On My Way (OMW), I haven’t used it yet, but the reviews say it does notify people of arrival.

I miss Twist!!! My youngest son would always know where I was and when I would be at school to pick him up. My middle son comes in from NYC by bus and I would know when to leave the house to meet him. If you find anything like it please post! Glympse is not close 🙁

Glimpse is only a shadow of what Twist was. Hopefully Twist or something like it will return. I’d gladly pay for getting Twist back. Maybe Glympse can offer a paid version to fill the empty space left by Twists departure. I depended on Twist heavily.

I think Twist was also available on Android as well as iOS. I used almost daily as well. I use iOS but a lot of my friends and colleagues use Android.

Thanks for posting this – I’ve been looking for anything on Twist’s demise ever since I noticed it wasn’t working. I, too, am a sad (former) Twist user. I find that Glympse does not quite fit the bill, since it only sends a link to your followers and requires them to view a map to get updates. Twist seems to be unique in the automated notifications to your followers, which is exactly what made it invaluable.

Thanks for the tip on beebump (Note: is it intended to be an all lower case title? Should it be “BeeBump”??) – at first glance this seems like a good alternative in the spirit of Twist (i.e. automatic messages to followers, eta, etc.). I’ll definitely check it out.

i miss twist too. btw if that is your home address, might want to blur it out in the screenshot.

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