Got an iPhone and want to know what apps are available for your to use it to get on Twitter? In this post Joe Meenen from Cute Machine (follow him at @cutemachine) explores your options.
If you searched through the App Store lately you should have noticed that there is a diverse selection of Twitter clients to choose from. That is no wonder, as the App Store now holds over 13,000 applications. Twitter clients come with different flavours and philosophies. To declare any one as the king of the iPhone twittersphere would be to presumptuous. Nevertheless, in the list below you might find the perfect tool for your Twitter needs. Here is every list item under 140 characters for better readability for us tweeples.
- Twittelator - (Free) Good groups concept for viewing different timelines. Twittelator Pro (4,99) with many more features.
- Summizer - (2,99) Advanced search capabilities. Configure search terms and then get the results in the future with just one tap.
- Tweetie - (2,99) Huge feature set. Recommended by John Gruber from Daring Fireball fame.
- Twitterrific - (Free) Ads on top of the timeline. Twitterrific Premium (7,99) with even more features. Very nice user interface.
- Tweetsville - (3,99) Has also a good feature set. Supports TwitPic.
- Twittervision - (Free) Impressive world view. Tweets get displayed on a world map. Double tap on a tweet to translate it into your language.
- NatsuLion - (Free) Clear design with separate views for different timelines (user, sent and unread). Uses accelerometer to hide tab bar.
- Tweeter - (Free) The most minimalist Twitter client. Post tweets and that’s it. Source code available.
- TwitterFon - (Free) Developer asks for a donation. TwitterFon is licensed under GPLv2. You can download source code from an svn repository.
- Twinkle - (Free) One of the most popular Twitter clients.
- iTweets - (0,99) There are free clients which offer more features, but if you need just the basic features this might be for you.
There are also some hybrid applications, which do have built-in Twitter support. If you are using other social networks along with Twitter you might be interested in these two:
- Nambu - (4,99) Supports Twitter, Identi.ca, Ping.fm and FriendFeed.
- Ziibii - (Free) Blends Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and your favorite web content.
Because there are many different flavours of Twitter clients in the App Store, you alone can decide which one best suits your needs. However, I consider some features essential for every tweeter:
- Compose tweets, direct messages, retweets and follow-ups.
- Compose tweets with photos and URLs.
- View public timelines, users’ timelines and, location based timelines.
- Visit links provided in tweets from within the application.
- Explore the twittersphere with location based and date based searches.
- View profiles and follow other tweeters.
To be honest with you, I haven’t attained the goal I had when I started this article. Actually I wanted to find the perfect Twitter client for you and present you with the reason why it is the best one. I haven’t found the best Twitter client. What I have found, though, is an awesome collection of tools which address different needs. Have I found the perfect Twitter client for my needs? Yes, I have, it is in the list above.
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the overview!
I have tried many of them… currently I use TwitterFon which lets me have a nice and easy overview of replies and DM. Recommended to al lwho get lots of DM’s and replies.
I had some problems with that when I used Twitterrific.
Personally I like the Twitterific client both on the desktop and for the iPhone. Thanks for a good list. I will try out several of these.
Tweetie is great for the iPhone and I am currently enjoying using TweetDeck as a desktop client. Both are recommended (by me, at least!).
I’ve been using Tweetie for the past few weeks. I recommend it!
-CD
TwitterFon continues to be an impressive app for my uses. Can be used very basically, but recent updates have packed in some other very handy features that are there if you need them. @TwitterFon @kudcom I agree, it is ultimately based on matching your personal needs to the app’s capabilities. There is no one size fits all. Another perk that comes along with democracy’s freedoms!
I started out using Twittelator, then moved to Twinkle. I used that one for quite a while, then gave Twitterific a try. Shortly after that, I heard about Tweetie, and I’ve been using that one for a couple months now. I’d have to say that I like Tweetie the best, but it does cost money.
I’d really like to see a Tweetdeck-type iPhone client that would let you break up your follows into groups.
Thanks Darren!
Was searching your site for just this post the day after xmas - I got so overwhelmed by the selection that I’ve mostly just used the mobile site.
I researched a bunch, tried both Twittelator and TwitterFon before settling on Tweetie. Both Twittelator and TwitterFon were so limited and clunky. Tweetie rocks though. Great feature set. Super easy to use. While not perfect, it’s the best out there Highly recommended.
I know you’ve focussed mainly on apps, some of which I’ve tried, there does seem to be a growing collection of iPhone-/mobile device-centric Twitter interfaces. The one that springs to mind is iTweet. It opens up a very nice (Ajax?) interface in a web browser, but viewing it on the iPhone (via its Safari browser) shows a nice mobile device version of the interface.
I would also like to see an iPhone app with the functionality of TweetDeck. I currently use Twitterific (free version) but am frequently frustrated by the lack of retweet functionality. Also use Twinkle but it sometimes seems that the stream is missing some tweets.
Is an awesome list. I happen to use the blackberry. So I guess this wouldn’t do anything for me.
Twitterfic is pretty cool, but theres no place to check your @replies and DMs with the free version
I’ve got both twitteriffic and twitterfon, and I have to say that twitterfonis just eassier for me to use, and seems to load faster. Everything just feels simple on it.
TwitterFon is the way to go, I scrapped Twitteriffic; i just wish it had a black background version!
Thanks for the article– I just tweeted this question
I use and highly recommend TwitterFon. I use it on my iPod Touch. I has a great interface, it’s fast and it’s free (Free is a compelling price point).
Hola thnk you for the pots, was great.
I also use TwitterFon on my iPod Touch and, like the other, I would highly recommend it. It’s fast, simple, and free.
Darren, take a look at my iPhone Twitter App comparison chart and let me know if I’ve missed any criteria that you think are important.
http://blog.tokash.org/2009/01/08/iphone-twitter-app-comparison-chart/
I’ve used a bunch of these, and like them a lot, but there’s one thing that’s killing me- nothing seems to have landscape support. For any kind of sustained typing, I NEED landscape mode, and no Twitter app seems to have one. Otherwise, I’ve grown to love Twitterfon. Thanks for the list!
I use Tweetsville on my iPhone, and it works pretty well for my needs. Starts a little slow, and doesn’t handle multiple accounts very well, but it does almost everything else very well. I like that it has separate areas for DMs and replies, and you can retweet pretty easily as well. It’s probably the most feature packed Twitter client without being overly busy, so it’s the one that gets my recommendation.
Nambu is exactly what I was looking for - but more so for its FriendFeed support than just Twitter.
Wow, there really are a lot of them aren’t there. I only use twitterific and twitterfon so far. I’ll have to check out some of these other ones. Thanks!