With the recent popularity of Google’s Mobile Operating System (OS), Android, the race is on to develop applications for all the Social Media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Since all apps are not created equal, this article will highlight the top free Twitter apps in the Android Market today.
Twidroid ()
Twidroid has been my go-to Twitter client for some time, and it has come far from its buggy beginnings. The free version will likely impress you, while the pro version (US$4.89) adds additional features like multiple accounts and video uploading.
Pros:
Clean User Interface. You won’t find a better UI in the Market. The Home, @Mentions, Direct Messages, Search, and Refresh buttons are available from anywhere in the app, and the toggle-able input box reduces screen clutter. A calm blue color scheme makes for easy reading.
Tweet options. Tapping a tweet brings up a nice overlay with all of the mentioned links, profiles, and hashtags. Tapping a tweet’s blue arrow allows you to retweet, reply, and view the tweeter’s profile, among other useful options.
Highly configurable. The number of tweets in your feed, the frequency of notifications, even the font size are all customizable from the Settings menu.
Other great features include search, trending topics, notifications, URL shorteners, photo upload, and cut and paste.
Cons:
Can’t manipulate tweets from user profiles. A vital flaw in Twidroid that lesser apps address is the inability to select a tweet while viewing a user’s profile, including your own. This makes it difficult to interact with new followers or with tweets that have fallen below the maximum size of your timeline.
Hangups. Occasionally, Twidroid will go to a lot of trouble to refresh your timeline without showing any new information. This issue has been mostly curtailed with recent updates.
Swift
The Swift Twitter app is a relatively new arrival in the Market, released in August 2009. The interface takes some getting used to, but it’s worth the effort, as there is strong functionality under the hood.
Pros:
SPEED! Swift is, well, swift! The app loads quickly, and pulls in new data like a champ.
Continuous feeds. Many mobile Twitter clients will load a set number of recent tweets, and refreshing may disconnect you from older items. But Swift is unique. As you scroll through your time line, Swift automatically loads older tweets, allowing you to read and respond to anything in your feed. Your feed will show you where you last left off, and you can always “Jump to Now” to get the most recent updates from the top.
Resends failed tweets. If there’s a hiccup in your connection or Twitter’s service and your tweet isn’t sent, Swift will “try again later” and attempt to resend automatically until successful.
Expandable links. Selecting a tweet with shortened links will automatically display the expanded URL or title of the destination web page. This is great for avoiding suspicious sites, but I find it most useful in deciding which articles are worth the load time in a mobile browser.
Cons:
Can’t view your own profile. Other than searching for yourself, or selecting your own tweet (or a tweet that mentions you), Swift offers no easy way to view your own profile. Beyond the pure narcissistic pleasure, I find viewing my profile useful for interacting, and it allows me to put the right foot forward when following new people. This missing feature is a disappointment in an otherwise great app.
Odd user interface. Once you figure out that Swift’s interface is hidden below your username, you’ll be off and tweeting. Despite regular use, I’m often fumbling for buttons that aren’t there and pressing things inadvertently.
Doesn’t always confirm tweets. Swift will occasionally send your updates into the Twitterverse without confirmation of success. If you don’t get feedback right away, check your feed to avoid the dreaded double post.
TwitterRide
TwitterRide is a solid app. While it lacks a few premium features, its lightweight, dead simple interface makes it great for quick posts and replies.
Pros:
Simple and clean UI. Three large tabs top TwitterRide’s interface: Main Feed, @Replies, and Direct Messages. That’s all you need. Switch between them with ease and speed. Little stars on each tab let you know of new arrivals. There’s plenty of clutter-free space to read your tweets, and three built-in color schemes to suit your eye.
Easy tweet manipulation. Tweeting, retweeting, replying, and DMing are done from a separate screen where you can add a URL, photo, or mark your GPS location.
Smart profile viewing. Twitteride allows you to view your own profile from the main menu, and view anyone else’s by selecting or searching for them. You can reply and retweet directly from a user’s feed. TwitterRide also allows you to update your profile photo directly from the app.
Cons:
Can’t see the timeline when tweeting or replying. Because TwitterRide takes you to a new screen when updating, you can’t reference the timeline or even the tweet you’re replying to without going back and forth. This is the main reason I tend not to interact heavily with followers using this app.
Difficult to select links and profiles. Because TwitterRide does not bring up an overlay when you select the body of a tweet, you’ll need to steady those fingers to touch the tiny links and @mentions you’re aiming for. Opening links inadvertently while scrolling through your feed is also a common problem.
Xeeku
Xeeku has a lot of advanced (and some strange or unnecessary) features. If you can get over the sheer ugliness of the interface, Xeeku can be a useful tool.
Pros:
Advanced tweet manipulation. Selecting a tweet allows you to reply, retweet, go to a user profile, go to a mentioned profile, go to links, and search hashtags. These options are available throughout. Another handy choice is “Gmail Share” which will paste the tweet URL into a new e-mail message for sharing with your Twitterphobic friends and family.
Other smart features include photo upload, trending topics, @reply notifications, and saved searches.
Interesting features. Xeeku has some unique functions that I haven’t seen in other apps:
By selecting Recent Conversation from any user’s tweets, Xeeku will line up the @replies you’ve been trading with that user so you can read them in succession.
Clicking on a user’s profile will load their timeline and stats, as well as a “friend drawer” which shows the photos of the users they follow, much like a profile page on Twitter ().
Selecting “Gallery” from the main menu loads a random selection of “Featured User Photos” from twitter.xeeku.com. This is a fun way to see what users are uploading and find interesting people to follow.
Cons:
Harsh Interface. Gradients, mismatched icons, sharp edges, and wandering text await new Xeeku users. In addition to its ugliness, the interface can be frustrating. A row of buttons floats aimlessly at the bottom, putting the comparatively less useful “Saved Searches” and “Trends” icons before “Mentions” and “Direct Messages.” Additionally, the app insists on going full screen and hiding your notification bar, cutting you off from new emails, messages, and the battery life indicator.
No settings. Want to turn off notifications? Rather see 200 tweets in your timeline? Well, you can’t, because Xeeku has absolutely no settings menu. Xeeku is a lot like kindergarten snack time: “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset.”
Instability. Xeeku has been updating recently, and while some patches tend to improve stability, others increase the Force Close rate. On the whole, it seems Xeeku may be so feature-heavy that it stumbles under its own weight.
Conclusion For now, these four apps tend to have the most useful Twitter features for Android (). Of them, Twidroid and Swift do the best job balancing rich functionality, speed, and interface design. In Android communities, Twidroid tends to be the Twitter app by which all others are measured, but I find I’m using Swift more and more for its speed and stability.
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