Legacy iOS preservation

Your old iPhone,
back on Twitter.

A tiny bridge server replays today's X data as the Twitter API that the 2012 app still speaks — so the original Twitter for iOS 6 loads your real timeline, profiles, photos and search again on an iPhone 5, 4S or iPod touch.

Download the bridgeMac · Linux · Windows · one installer Download Twitter (.ipa)v5.0.3 · iOS 5/6 · 2012 build
iPhone 5 / 4S / 4iPod touch 4GiOS 5 – 6.1.6 No jailbreak needed*

What it is

The app never talks to x.com

Twitter shut down the API this app was built for. XBridge stands in the middle: it signs into your X account in a headless browser, reads the data the modern site already loads, and re-serves it in the exact shape the old app understands. You run one small server; the vintage app does the rest.

Harvester

A headless Chromium logged into your account sweeps home, mentions and profiles, reading the site's own GraphQL payloads.

Legacy API

That data is served back as the Twitter v1/v1.1 API — JSON and XML — with every endpoint the 2012 build calls.

Media proxy

iOS 6 can't do modern TLS, so every avatar and photo is fetched by the bridge and re-served on its own connection.

Tutorial

Watch the setup

On Windows, just double-click install.cmd — it runs the same installer.

The app

Twitter 5.0.3 — the last iOS 5/6 build

Released October 2012, this is the final version that installs on iOS 5 and 6. It's the classic skeuomorphic client: linen textures, the glossy blue bar, the old bird. Pair it with the bridge and it behaves like it's 2012 again — except the timeline is live.

Version 5.0.3armv7 · armv7sBundle com.atebits.Tweetie2 Min iOS 5.0~6.5 MB

* No jailbreak is required for the app itself — the in-app gear points it at your bridge. An optional MobileSubstrate tweak (for jailbroken devices) can redirect traffic transparently and proxy images system-wide, but it isn't needed to get started.