The Good
- Free
- Easy to use
The Bad
- Boring interface
- Notifications are slow
Tweetie was one of the most popular iPhone Twitter apps, but many wondered what would happen after the app was acquired by Twitter. Well, now we know: Tweetie has become the official Twitter app (Free), but the switch didn't bring many changes.
The Twitter app is now free
In updating the Tweetie app, the folks at Twitter decided not to change too much. You can now use the app without a Twitter account, which is an interesting move. Of course, you can’t write your own tweets if you don’t have an account, but you can still search tweets or browse users.
The search tab has also been changed so you can now search tweets and find new people to follow in the same place. There’s also more focus on Top Tweets, which are popular tweets that are attracting a lot of attention from users. You’ll now see Top Tweets anytime you search for a phrase or user. The best part of the switch is the price -- Tweetie used to cost $2.99, but the official Twitter app is now free.
So how is the Twitter app to use? Tweetie was always known for being user-friendly, and the new Twitter app continues that trend. Twitter newbies will find it easy to figure out, and most of the icons are intuitive and simple to navigate.
Other than the minor changes noted above, the app is pretty much the same. The interface is rather plain and not the nicest to look at, especially compared to other free Twitter apps like TweetDeck. If you set up lists of followers on Twitter.com, they are automatically transferred to the app. Composing new tweets is also relatively straightforward. You can refresh your Twitter feed by scrolling to the top, and a blue light glows under the main navigation bar to notify you of a new mention or direct message. However, the blue light didn’t always come on when I had a new mention, even though that mention showed up in my main Twitter feed.
The Bottom Line
If you liked Tweetie, you’ll probably like the Twitter iPhone app. Not too much has changed, and the app is still very easy to use. It’s not the most gorgeous Twitter app available, but it’s now free and has a number of convenient features, including integrated Twitter lists. Overall rating: 4 stars out of 5
What You’ll Need
The Twitter iPhone app works on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. You’ll need iPhone OS 3.0 or later to download the app.
