
Show HN: Minimal Twitter – drastically simplify and declutter the new Twitter UI - thomaswangio
https://dev.thomaswang.io/minimal-twitter/
======
bscphil
If you're taking suggestions, I think a three-column format would be cool.
Basically, the first column is the thin icons you have now. The second column
is the tweet column. The third column (equal in size to the second column)
would appear when you click on a tweet; instead of loading the responses to
that tweet as a modal view as it does now, the responses would appear in the
right column.

Basically, this would make Twitter a lot more like several email clients or an
RSS reader. Quick and dirty mockup:
[https://i.imgur.com/Uh9Rbcz.png](https://i.imgur.com/Uh9Rbcz.png)

Also, would be nice to force Twitter into "latest tweets" mode, and also to
provide a userscript for those of us who prefer to avoid untrusted addons.

~~~
thomaswangio
Interesting, sounds challenging! Would you mind adding this to the issues?
Maybe someone will be able help me tackle it then
[https://github.com/thomaswangio/minimal-
twitter/issues](https://github.com/thomaswangio/minimal-twitter/issues)

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supernintendo
Neat idea for showing off your design chops. I don’t use Twitter so I don’t
have much feedback, other than your ad blocking code being brittle [1].

[1] [https://github.com/thomaswangio/minimal-
twitter/blob/e076507...](https://github.com/thomaswangio/minimal-
twitter/blob/e076507e400013e15462acce5b38a224ba3251cd/chrome/removePromoted.js#L34)

~~~
thomaswangio
Thanks for pointing that out, I think I might remove it. Will cause more
trouble down the road. Do you have any ideas to make it more safe?

~~~
supernintendo
Unfortunately, I can’t think of any. Twitter could arbitrarily change where
those elements are placed in the DOM at any time (and they probably will to
prevent other extensions from blocking promoted tweets). I would just consider
this out of the scope of your project and not bother handling it.

~~~
thomaswangio
Totally agreed, definitely out of scope. Just removed the script from the
manifests. Thanks again!

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Hoasi
Just installed the Safari extension. It makes the new Twitter bearable.
Excellent work!

~~~
flixic
Apple should really rethink their extension strategy. Other platforms require
a click of a button. Safari requires either going through the App Store, or
doing Dev Mode shenanigans.

~~~
Hoasi
Agreed, we can all understand legitimate security/quality concerns, but their
current policy prevents some great extensions from reaching a wider audience.

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strict9
If I could make a feature request, one more removal: the giant fixed blue
button in lower right. Still can't believe twitter designers thought covering
content with a control is a good idea on mobile.

Thank you for a wonderful plugin.

~~~
thomaswangio
Ah yes I meant to make that an option in the Chrome extension. It'll be in the
next update!

~~~
thomaswangio
Done! [https://github.com/thomaswangio/minimal-
twitter/releases/tag...](https://github.com/thomaswangio/minimal-
twitter/releases/tag/2.3)

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ctdonath
At the other extreme, I want an interface that graphically depicts full graph
tree of tweets (replies and commented RTs). On a tablet, show the entire tree
on one screen.

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leshokunin
Came in expecting Emacs. Noticed a sidebar, icons, bold, separators, user
profile photos. Not quite minimalist yet! At the end of the day, Twitter can
look like IRC.

~~~
dewey
Bitlbee can do that!
[https://wiki.bitlbee.org/HowtoTwitter](https://wiki.bitlbee.org/HowtoTwitter)

~~~
Lammy
Does it still work after the recent API changes that killed Tweetbot and other
apps? I had this set up a few years ago and miss it but assumed it was done
for alongside the others.

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Eric_WVGG
I don't have "new Twitter" so I can't test this yet, but Safari users can
probably use the (for-sale-on-App-Store) Cascadea extension and plug in the
stylesheet from [https://github.com/thomaswangio/minimal-
twitter/blob/master/...](https://github.com/thomaswangio/minimal-
twitter/blob/master/chrome/minimal-twitter.css)

------
miguelmota
Random tip: If you have the tamper monkey browser extension [1], you can
simply add `document.querySelector('[data-testid="sidebarColumn"]').remove()`
to remove the second sidebar on page load to make it feel minimal without much
effort.

[1] [https://www.tampermonkey.net/](https://www.tampermonkey.net/)

~~~
bscphil
Or you can just do this in Stylus:

    
    
        div[data-testid="sidebarColumn"] {
            display: none;
        }
    

Also, since Tampermonkey is closed source, it's probably better to use
Greasemonkey or Violentmonkey.

~~~
usonian
Have you been able to get this to work? I can't get Stylus to override any
styles on the new Twitter site.

~~~
bscphil
Yep, it's working for me now. Latest Firefox on MacOS. Maybe check if the
"test" CSS class appears in the source for you. If not there's probably an
obfuscated class you can target instead.

~~~
usonian
Interesting - this works just fine in Firefox, but the same styles in the
Stylus extension for Chrome aren't working. I can see them in the DOM, they
just aren't having any effect on the page. I've tried targeting both the
testid and the classes and neither seem to work on Chrome.

~~~
bscphil
As I recall Twitter has some fairly strict CSP rules, and extensions have had
problems with them in the past. Maybe the Stylus extension can bypass rules in
Firefox that it's not able to in Chrome?

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Existenceblinks
The left-nav hover is a good balance UX that's no harm to be official. Thanks
for making this. Installed!

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ryanmccullagh
I honestly like the new Twitter UI. It's more usable for me than the previous
design.

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malloreon
when will someone release a hack that inverts feed order?

I don't know about the rest of you, but I browse the web in English, which is
read left to right and top to bottom.

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busymom0
Can this be made available for brave browser too?

~~~
gfosco
Brave is Chromium, you should be able to install the Chrome extension.

~~~
thomaswangio
Yes! You can install Chrome extensions on Brave
[https://support.brave.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360017909112-How...](https://support.brave.com/hc/en-
us/articles/360017909112-How-can-I-add-extensions-to-Brave)

------
dang
Url changed from [https://twang.dev/minimal-
twitter/](https://twang.dev/minimal-twitter/).

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beachsam0rai
hey good work! just to let you know hidden navigation labels working only in
english language.

~~~
thomaswangio
Oh really? Thanks for the catch. Can you throw me an issue on GitHub, I'll see
if I can tackle it or someone else can pick it up
[https://github.com/thomaswangio/minimal-
twitter/issues/new](https://github.com/thomaswangio/minimal-
twitter/issues/new)

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lwansbrough
Where are the trends?

~~~
thomaswangio
They're in twitter.com/explore :)

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lkschubert8
It looks very similar to Medium.

