> Twitter without distractions
Is there an alternative to Twitter without its notifications and promoted tweets?
If you want instant access to live tweets, particularly if you use Direct Messages, Twitter is the best choice, as it uses the service’s live feed to bring immediate updates. You also get promoted and other tweets which the service decides you might like. You can choose whether these are “interest–based” in your settings: in Personalization and data settings, change Personalize ads. That won’t remove advertising, but the process will only use information which Twitter considers non–personal, including the content of your tweets and which other users you follow.
Two excellent alternatives are Tweetbot and Twitterific, which use different Twitter feeds so don’t include promoted content. They also give you full control over notifications, which you can adjust using the Notifications pane.
The disadvantage of third–party Twitter clients is that they don’t access the same immediate feed as the Twitter app. This can result in slight delays to tweets appearing, but is most noticeable with Direct Messages, which can be delayed by a minute or two. One solution is to use the Twitter app on another device, such as an iPhone, when you need immediacy.