If you’ve been on Twitter for more than five minutes, you’ve probably heard of Tweetbot. Tweetbot is the most talked about Twitter client these days, as it should be. I have tried just about every Twitter client for iPhone out there, and while there are some that are pretty impressive, none of them can touch Tweetbot. Tweetbot takes every good aspect from all the different mobile twitter apps, improves them, and then rolls them into one super slick app. Take the UI, for example. Tweetbot has one of the most unique UI’s that I’ve ever seen, not just in Twitter apps, but in iPhone apps. Yes, it’s the standard Tapbots interface, but c’mon, it’s gorgeous. And the Tweet Drawer (the little menu that slides out when you click on a tweet)- that’s genius. I hate that when you click on a tweet in other apps it takes you to another page, that just wastes time. Tweetbot’s ‘stay on the same page’ method is so much simpler. Needless to say, if Tweetbot’s UI was the standard for iPhone apps, I’d be a very, very happy camper. Not convinced? Read a little further. If I can get even one person to stop using their garbage of a Twitter app and try out Tweetbot’s magic, then my work here will be done.
So besides an amazing UI, what makes Tweetbot so special? Well, it may have something to do with its incredibly extensive list of features. Ever since its release, Tweetbot has boasted an incredible arsenal of features that other apps just couldn’t compete with. But with the release of Tweetbot 2.0, and later 2.1, I think it’s safe to say that we have a clear winner here. Now I’m not going to name every single feature that Tweetbot has to offer, I don’t think any of you have time to read something like that. I’m just going to point out some of my favorites, the features that made me choose Tweetbot over all the others.
First off, Tweetbot has pretty much mastered the art of conversation- through swipe gestures. Swipe a tweet to the right, and you’ll see what that tweet was in reply to, as well as all of the tweets before it that are part of the conversation thread. Swipe to the left, and you’ll see all the replies that tweet has gotten. This has got to be my all time favorite feature, swiping is just so easy. Still hard to believe that Tweetbot is the only app that does this, keeping track of a Twitter conversation is impossible without it.
Next, if you look at the bar on the bottom of the screen, you’ll notice that the last two buttons on the right have arrows on them. Holding down on one of them will bring up a menu that will allow you to choose what feature you’d like to set that button to. This is extremely useful, as not everyone has the same Twitter preferences. You may like having instant access to Retweets, while others may prefer having a Favorites button. When it comes to customization, Tweetbot doesn’t disappoint.
Another great feature, one that other mobile clients have yet to implement, is Multiple Timelines. If you use Twitter lists on a daily basis, chances are you may not even read your default timeline at all. With Tweetbot, not only is accessing lists a breeze, but you can even save a list as your default timeline. This means that when you open up the app, the first thing you see is your list, instead of that noisy, overpopulated page of tweets they call the ‘default timeline’.
If you like to upload photos and videos to Twitter, and/or saving articles to read later, then Tweetbot is the app for you. Tweetbot allows you to upload photos via CloudApp, img.ly, Lockerz, Mobypicture, Pikchur, Posterous, Twitgoo, TwitPic, Twitter, and yfrog. Tweetbot also allows you to upload videos via CloudApp, Mobypicture, Pikchur, Posterous, TwitVid, and yfrog. And lastly, you can save links to read later via Instapaper, Pinboard, Readability, and Read It Later. Enough integration for you?
There are seriously so many other awesome features that I can talk about, like double tapping a tweet to view the tweet details, inline image viewing, one tap access to links, tweet streaming (wifi only), and even push notifications! (It’s incredible that in 2012 we still have Twitter clients that don’t offer native push notifications!) I can go on and on about how fantastic Tweetbot is, but I think you’re just going to have to try it out for yourself. There is simply no way that Tweetbot can’t live up to your expectations, no matter how much of a self claimed ‘Twitter Power User’ you are. Go get it. At three bucks, it’s a steal.
