Twitter technology chief steps down

Messinger, who had previously been vice president, development at Oracle, joined Twitter in 2011 and became CTO in 2013. Along with Bain, who joined Twitter in 2010, Messinger was one of the two longest serving members of the company's senior executive group.

Chief executive Jack Dorsey gave a statement in which he did not refer specifically to Messinger's departure, but said that he would now personally be working "even closer with our engineering and design teams to ensure we continue to be the fastest and best service to show what’s happening in the world".

This meant that Dorsey would have direct control over the company’s product, engineering and design functions, the FT reported a Twitter spokesman as saying.