App review: Twitter

Twitter

The people at Twitter have finally released their official app. Is it any easier to use than all the other twitter apps out there? Read on to find out.

Like so many other people in the world I like social networking. When I heard of this twitter site that would take over from facebook, naturally I created an account. I then chose to follow a couple of people, I wrote a few tweets, somebody followed me and that was that. I wasn’t really sure of the point of it. A few months later I thought I’d give it a go again and looked at the apps available on my iPhone.

There were loads, some free and some paid but no official one. I used a few different free apps and really got into twitter.

The news that an official app was coming our way was, of course, intriguing. The fact that it was also free made it even more so. As I only ever tweet from my iPhone, any app that is easy to use is all I need.

Twitter - Home Screen

As with the other Twitter apps the first thing you do is sign in and then away you go. The home screen shows your tweets from whomever you follow. It’s simple to refresh by just dragging the screen down and letting go. Your other main options at the bottom of the screen are @ which show you any mentions you have received, a personal message option and a search option. In the search tab you can search for any topic or name and see the most popular trends in current tweets from around the world or near to your location.

Twitter - New Tweet

When you go to write a new tweet the keyboard pops up automatically. By hiding the keyboard you get six more options to add to your tweet; Camera for uploading instant pictures, Photo Library to choose a picture to upload, Geotag to show where you are, @ to add usernames, Hashtags to tag a topic and Shrink URLs to, well, shrink your links. Everything is very easy to use and you can tweet within a matter of seconds of loading the app.

Twitter - Reading a tweet

When you click on a tweet to read you also get more options; Reply to the tweet, Retweet, Add to favourites, use attachment and what you’ll recognise as a button from many apps on the iPhone that allows you to quote, mail and even translate the tweet.

Multiple Accounts

You can also add multiple Twitter accounts. As you can see in the images below from Dan, you can set up work and personal accounts. When you have multiple accounts set up after launching you can choose which account you want to view.

Heaps of settings

There are a multitude of settings in the app. You can change the font type and size, choose how your name is displayed, choose your image quality (great for when you are out and about), choose which service you use for images, video, url shortening and reading later, and a whole load more.

Searching in widescreen

You can also use the app in landscape mode as well. This is great and makes it a whole lot easier to type out your tweets.

All in all this is a slick app from the guys at Twitter, it is free, very easy to use and you can do everything from your iPhone. On iPod touch a few options will be unusable (such as the camera option, Geotag) and obviously you’ll need wifi access to use the app, but still a great and simple app.

If you’re looking for an app to begin your twitter encounter then look no further! If you’re a Twitter pro then this app is also for you.

– Twitter