If you like to tweet on the move, there’s certainly no dearth of iPhone Twitter apps to choose from. From simple yet luscious apps such as TwitBird, to complex, multi-account tools like TweetDeck, there are plenty of options. But most of us will need to look no further than Twitter’s own app to accommodate our mobile tweeting needs. Just as Facebook was tardy in developing its own app for the iPhone, so too was Twitter. In fact, the company didn’t even bother developing one. Instead, it did something smart: it bought Tweetie from developer Loren Brichter, changed the name to Twitter and made it free.
Tweetie has always been one of the best Twitter apps around and Tweetie 2, which is what lurks beneath the Twitter app, is both slick and efficient. This app has all the tweeting essentials: it makes it easy to view and send tweets; it’s equally easy to send replies and retweets, and to create favourites; it lets you follow and unfollow people; it provides a choice of URL shorteners and image and video uploaders; it lets you view linked content directly within the app; and it handles lists with aplomb.
In addition, Tweetie offers several features that help distinguish it from the crowd.
- You can use it even if you don’t have a Twitter account. If you prefer to watch rather than tweet, you can use it to follow the public timeline or monitor trending topics on Twitter.
- It provides Twitter signup within the app.
- You can set up multiple accounts and then flip between them easily. Twitter doesn’t deliver the power of an app like TweetDeck, which lets you follow multiple account tweetstreams simultaneously, but it provides sufficient flexibility for most users.
- It gives you the ability to create drafts. Write a tweet and instead of tapping Send, tap Close. You’ll be given the option to save a draft of your tweet, which you can send later.
- It makes ultra-smart use of limited space. Context-sensitive toolbars, swipe options and a hidden tweet editing panel pack a lot of power into a small space.
Navigating the app
When you first start using Twitter, you may think it’s underpowered, but that’s because so much of the interface is neatly tucked away.
At the base of the main timeline displaying the tweets of those you follow is a toolbar with five icons. Tap the icons to switch between the tweetstream, mentions, direct messages and a search box. Tap the ‘more’ icon to the right to see your profile, a list of favourites, draft tweets and lists you’re following, plus a quick link back to all your accounts and settings. Dive into your profile and you’ll see a different toolbar, housing icons for your profile, timeline, mentions and favourites.
Tap any tweet to see it in a full-screen view, which displays the tweet with clickable links, the person who tweeted it and another toolbar. This toolbar lets you reply; retweet; mark the tweet as a favourite; mail or repost any embedded link or mark the link for later reading; or quote, mail or translate the tweet. Tap the person who tweeted to see their profile and follow or unfollow them.
Twitter tips
There’s a whole lot going on, but it’s all done with elegance. It may take you half an hour to identify all the icons, but most of them are pretty self-explanatory.
What’s not obvious are the hidden extras. For example, while viewing the timeline, swipe left or right on any tweet and you’ll get an instant toolbar that lets you reply, retweet, favourite, post or view embedded links, or quote, mail or translate the tweet.
There’s more. When you tap the Compose icon to create a tweet, the screen is divided into a keyboard at the bottom and an editing window at the top. There’s also a tiny character count button at the bottom-right of the editing window. Tap to display editing tools:
- A camera button for taking a photo with the iPhone, automatically uploading it and embedding a link to it in the tweet.
- Access to your iPhone photo library to choose a photo to tweet.
- A geotagging option.
- A directory of usernames, so you can quickly include followers in a tweet.
- A search box for recently used hashtags.
- A button to shrink URLs in the tweet.
If you jump back to the Accounts screen and tap the Settings button, you’ll be able to adjust notifications for each of your accounts. Scroll down to the bottom of the Settings page to adjust universal settings, such as font size and date format. Tap the Services button to select your favourite URL shortening service, and image and video services. You can also choose between Instapaper and Read It Later for links you save to read later.
Voyeur mode
If you’re feeling like consuming rather than contributing tweets, fork out a buck and load up Trickle on your iPad. It presents your tweetstream one tweet at a time, with big ‘r’ and ‘f’ buttons for retweeting and marking favourites.
