A quick Android twitter client review.
For the past 9 months I have been looking for the perfect Twitter client for Android phones (specifically my HTC Magic)... and while I am still yet to find it, I have come pretty close! I thought I'd share a brief outline of my findings to help anyone in the same situation. I am not a Twitter power user, but I do like to keep up with what's happing and interact with followers/friends. On my PC I use (and love) Tweetdeck but sadly their Android app is still in the pipeline - I look forward to testing it when it arrives!
These are my top priorities that are crucial for me in any Android twitter app:
- Speed (especially when loading and scrolling through the time-line)
- Ability to remember last viewed tweet in the time-line.
- Ability to update tweets in background (but not notify of new ones), so I don't have to wait for a refresh if I just want a quick glance
The following are nice-to-haves:
- Slick UI
- Multiple accounts
- Colour labels for different people I'm following.
Twidroid:
This was the first Twitter client I used, and until recently was the one I always returned to.
Pros:
- Straightforward.
- Feature packed.
- Fast.
Cons:
- For me, the major problem I have is scrolling through the time-line, especially when it is being refreshed. It is very jumpy and suddenly you will find that you are back down to where you started from!
- UI is looking dated compared to the newer clients.
Seesmic:
I really liked Seesmic when I first tried it, and I know people who think it's the best Android Twitter app. However it's lack of background updating of the time-line (I want it to do this without notifying me of new tweets) meant I returned to Twidroid.
Pros:
- Fast.
- Nice looking UI.
Cons:
- No background time-line updating without notification.
- Tabs are a bit on the large size - would prefer more room to view tweets.
Twicca
This is a nice looking app, comparable to Seesmic. I found it a bit more unstable than the others - but it is in Beta. Like Seesmic it didn't do the background update, but the real problem I had was with the non-standard UI. For instance you have to confirm changes you make to the settings by touching a tick/check box - which was a bit 'Windows' for my liking!
Pros:
- Looks really good.
- Fast.
- Coloured code tweets.
- Non-standard UI.
- No background time-line updating without notification.
- Slightly less stable.
Tweetcaster
This is a lovely looking app, but it was sooooo slow to load that I couldn't cope with it!
Swift
I did install Swift early on. It was fast, but I didn't get on with the UI so I went back to Twidroid.
...and now for my current favourite:
Touiteur:
When I first installed Touiteur, my initial thought was that it was similar to Seesmic with a nicer interface, but missing some of my priority features. I also found that the remember position in the time-line feature didn't appear to work, and the number of tweets in the time-line was limited (unless I upgraded to the pro version). I nearly uninstalled it (and would have done if the UI hadn't been so nice!) , but the next day an update appeared that fixed the problems with the time-line and unlocked the number of tweets function. I have been using it for as my primary Twitter app for a couple of weeks now and it is definitely my favourite app. For a video of Touiteur in action, have a look at : http://levelupstudio.com/touiteur
Pros:
- Fast
- Beautiful UI with nice animations and clever menus.
- Colour coded tweets
- Background refresh that works!
Cons:
- No multiple accounts unless you upgrade to the pro version.
- Couple of force close errors - which disappeared with a re-install.
Conclusion:
There are lots of twitter apps to choose from and more appearing everyday (Hootsuite released theirs yesterday). The quality and speed of development of these apps is amazing, so please don't take the above as a definitive guide, as the features are changing almost on a daily basis! I will try to update this review when I get a chance - but for now Touiteur gets my award for best Twitter android app!
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