Tweet Keeper [Sponsor] →

Tweet Keeper is an amazingly easy way to save, search, and export tweets from a Twitter account. Not only is it a great way to backup your own tweets — but you can search and save any public tweets, since it works with any Twitter account.

As some may have heard, I’m currently on an extended Twitter sabbatical for many reasons. As a writer, I believe all that I write — even the seemingly inconsequential — has value. I did not want all of this writing that I have done for the past few years on Twitter to remain only there. Therefore, I was looking for a way, even before my departure, to easily backup as much of my own tweets as I could — plain text preferred if possible. Tweet Keeper came at just the right time for me. It was lightning quick at finding my last 3200 tweets (a limit imposed by the Twitter API… Don’t get me started.) and allowed me to create a permanent and portable backup.

Then, in email discussions with the developer, Ganter Ludwig, I found that he too had a similar philosophy and designed the app to serve it:

I’m a strong believer in backing up valuable digital “possessions.” I know tweets are often considered to be disposable, but my tweets are indeed valuable to me . With all the recent concerns about Twitter changing, the need to backup tweets became even more apparent. That’s why I wanted an easy way to store my tweets outside of Twitter so I always had them, and can control how they are presented in the future. There are other ways to back up tweets, but they all had limitations or were annoying difficult to setup and access.

Twitter, as we have known it until now, is changing. This is a great app that could not have come at a better time. If you care at all about digital archiving and data lock-in, or if you simply want a fast way to search through past tweets, this is the app you need.

It’s only $1.99 on the app store which is more than fair if you ask me. Having ownership of my words is worth far more.