There are many Twitter clients available for Twitter users to download and use. Today Mike Nichols (follow him at @mikenichols0) from the Anxiety, Panic & Health blog reviews the popular Mac Twitter Client - Twitterrific.
Twitterific is the most popular Twitter client application for the Mac. It is simple, has a clean interface, and is easy and intuitive to use. It has some tradeoffs for this simplicity, as we will see. Twitterific can be used free of charge without limitation, but advertisements are displayed once per hour. If you pay the IconFactory $14.95 US, ads are removed. Twitterific is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch, as well.
The Twitterific screen is completely resizable, and is usable even at its smallest widths and heights. It is possible to go into full screen mode with a keyboard shortcut. The white-on-black appearance may not be very eye-friendly to everyone.
As seen in the screenshot, replies and direct messages are a different color. Twitter errors are shown inline as a yellow box if you have configured your preferences to show them. If you are using the freeware version of Twitterific, advertisements are shown inline as well. Tweets that have been read are dimmed.
All of Twitterific’s options are available at the click of your mouse when a tweet is highlighted — user tools, replying to a tweet, and the person’s website. Buttons for going to your Twitter home page, preferences and refreshing are at the bottom left, next to the tweet entry area.
Twitterific has an extensive set of keyboard shortcuts that make using it even faster. There are only a couple actions that are keyboard only, and these are the standard Mac screen shortcuts such as command-W to close the screen.
The user tools are accessed by clicking on the gear symbol when a tweet is highlighted. As shown in the screenshot, most Twitterific actions are available from this one menu. Keyboard shortcuts are listed as a learning aid.
Here’s where some of Twitterific’s shortcomings become apparent. There is no way to easily retweet a message in Twitterific. You have to cut and paste, which is not that much of a pain, but something that would be easy to add to the program.
There are several important features that are missing in Twitterific that are common in other clients such as TweetDeck, iTweet, and Twhirl. There is no shortening of URL’s within the program, nor is there an interface with TwitPic, TwitScoop or similar programs or URL’s — however, Twitterific can update your status in iChat, Adium, or Skype when you post a tweet. Although you can favorite a tweet, you can’t display favorites, friends, followers, or a list of replies and direct messages. There is no grouping of people as there is in TweetDeck.
One of the strong points of Twitterific is its configurability. The preferences window has tabs for Tweets, Window, and System. Among the things that can be configured are:
- Download tweets from the public timeline or just the people you follow
- Refresh times from never to every hour
- Window transparency, shadow, font size, whether it is a normal window or floats above others, and whether it pops up on new tweets
- Expand or collapse tweets. Collapsing presents the tweets as a list. When you click on one, it expands.
- Automatically start Twitterific on login
- After posting a tweet, update status in iChat, Adium, and/or Skype
- Behavior when new tweets come in: keep the same view, most recent tweets, or last tweet selected
- Automatic login with last account used
You can also change the notification sound to four different bird twitters. Personally, I found them loud and intrusive, so I found a more polite bird sound and inserted it into the program. Let me know if you want to know how I did it!
The “Help” button is a disappointment: It only takes you to the IconFactory’s Twitterific page. I suppose they think that Twitterific is easy enough that help is not needed!
One of the things I have found most convenient about Twitterific is the ability to keep the same view when new tweets come in. That makes reviewing those hundreds of overnight tweets simple and easy.
Memory and CPU usage
This is an important consideration if you are using a Mac with limited resources. Twitterific’s memory footprint is quite small, and it uses a low amount of virtual memory. It uses very little CPU time except when checking for new tweets and making its notification sound. It plays very well with older Macs.
In comparison with TweetDeck (read our review of TweetDeck), Twitterific uses less than one-third of the memory, two-thirds of the virtual memory, and only 5 percent of the CPU time. Compared with Twirl, it uses half the memory, two-thirds of the virtual memory and only 10 percent of the CPU time.
AppleScript
Twitterific is unique among the Mac Twitter clients in that it supports AppleScript. For those that might not know, AppleScript is Mac OS X’s built-in scripting language. Twitterific’s support of AppleScript is pretty basic, just enough to send a tweet. But that means that you can write scripts that will send a tweet while using any other program.
Conclusion
Twitterific, for all its omissions, is as easy to like as it is to use. Although I have used other clients extensively, I keep coming back to Twitterific for its simplicity and its light load on my older Mac. It has many endearing features, mostly connected to its ease of use and configurability. It also has some annoying “features,” and some missing pieces that I hope will be fixed in the upcoming 3.2 version.
Pro’s of Twitterific
- Simple, clean interface
- Easy to use, intuitive
- Fast, no lag on redrawing images
- Flexible configuration
- Multiple accounts
- Small memory and CPU footprint
- Works well with older Macs and those with limited resources
- Replies and direct messages are in a different color
- Screen easily resized and is usable at any size
Cons of Twitterific
- No grouping or any way to just display favorites, replies, direct messages, friends, or followers
- No search function
- No retweet without cutting and pasting
- Loud and annoying notification sounds
- No interface with a URL shortener, TwitPic, etc.
- White on black screen may not suit everybody’s eyes
Have you used Twitterific as a Twitter Client? What is your opinion and user experience of it?
@ShriNagesh
Wow, thats a great review of twitterific, especially I like the implementation of shortcuts. Miss them in twhirl and tweetdeck.
And the disadvantage is advertisements in free version. Good gracious my twitter clients haven’t introduced them yet.
I guess, there is no perfect tool yet but we can look forward to see better tools in the near future.
@mcday
That’s the one thing that really bugs me… no retweet… not without cutting and pasting. If anything these tools should be convenient. That is a major feature to leave out.
@abhishek
I had been using tweetdeck for a long time now, but twitterifix features u mentioned are driving me towards installing it, lets see wat more it has to offer i will always be comparing with the best twitter client i am aware of i.e tweetdeck…will keep u posted abt it.
@olikenobi
I’m using Twitterific as my desktop client because of its low memory footprint. I can’t afford to run an AIR based client because I usually have too many memory consuming programs running at the same time.
I’ll reconsider this when I have a MacPro with 16GB of ram…
On my iPhone I use TwitterFon, it’s almost as simple as simple as Twitterific, with a couple more features like Twitpic.
@qeek
This is a surprisingly informative review… For me Twitterrific is the only way to go on the Mac – it was the first Twitter client that I actually wanted to use (because of its simplicity and interface) and it made me use Twitter more often than before.
Oh and speaking of ads, I don’t really think of them as a disadvantage; sometimes they can be more interesting than the tweets below. Why would I pay $14,95 then?
@tumblemoose
I’ll file this for future reference, as I’m still waiting for my fairy Godmother to drop a MacBook in my lap so I can toss my flippin’ pc out the window. (cruises through the underwear drawer looking for pennies and dimes)
cheers
George
@chriscoyier
Twitteriffic is the only client I’ve ever used. I can’t say it’s the best, but it’s good enough that I’ve never had any desire to try out anything else, and that says something!
@jordisoler
Without the replies tab this app feels half-empty. I miss the chance to paste directly the URL you’re visiting at the time of your tweets. To me, Twitterfox is much much better, although I like the fact that you can update your Adium status.
@jdesignz
Awesome!!! Will try this sometime thanks
@kwbridge
Great review Mike! Since I don’t have a MAC and didn’t win one in the Haiku contest, I won’t be trying this anytime soon
The memory footprint is nice – last night my machine slowed to a crawl and it was because if tweetdeck – and it had only been running for 48 hours.
And LOL – what does a more polite bird sound like? Or a rude bird, for that matter?
@benhomie
Yeah the only thing I find is no retweet, besides that, I love using the keyboard shortcut to quickly see the tweets window. Real time saver.
@hectorhenry17
Y use it ones but i stay whit twitterfox by mean that i keep my self in firefox, but was really good to use its what i like form him the twiterific its how he organize every thing.
@mikepanic
I’ve been using Twitterific for about a year now and really like it, it does everything I could want with no issues, ever.
@mikenichols0
@ShriNagesh Now if I could get Twitterific, TweetDeck and Twirl and mash them all together…
@mike Maybe they’ll put retweet into the next version. Shouldn’t be too hard.
@abhishek Why don’t you give Twitterific a try? Will seem pretty spartan after TweetDeck, but the simplicity grows on you.
@Oli Kenobi Yes, TweetDeck is a real resource hog. And it’s sloooowww on older Macs.
@qeek The ads in Twitterific are not intrusive, and they’re only once per hour, anyway. I can watch a lot of ads for 15 bucks!
@Tumblemoose As a Mac fan since 1984 (I’m really that old!), I can heartily recommend them!
@Chris Coyier Like I say in the review, I keep coming back to Twitterific, even though I have to cut and paste for retweets.
@Jordi The arrow on the right side of the tweet lets you reply, and it puts the person’s address in for you. Haven’t tried TwitterFox, since FireFox crashes every 3 minutes for me!
@Jhay Why don’t you give Twitterific a try? I think you might like it!
@Kim The stock birdies have looonnnggg warbles. I’ve put in a very short chirp that doesn’t get my cat all agitated!
@benhomie The keyboard shortcuts are nice — makes everything lots faster…if I can ever remember them all!
@Hector A. Henry S. Twitterific is an acquired taste, and it might not suit everybody. Like I said above, I’d give TwitterFox a try if FireFox didn’t keep crashing.
@Mike Panic Twitterific is very, very stable. I’ve never had it crash after many months of leaving my computer on 24/7.
@hectorhenry
@Mike Nichols I understand you point and you are right.
@mikehernalsteen
I use twitteriffic on my iphone, and while I do like it, I think it could be better. I wish hahlo had an app instead of having to go to their site all the time, because I find it to be the most useful on the iphone. Very clean interface, easy to see my friends’ followers, etc.
@mepho
This is a great review. I use twitteriffic and it does everything it needs to do. I turn off the error logging and error messages so the yellow error doesnt show much.
The problem I am having with twitteriffic is that when someone sends me a direct message it shows at the bottom and never goes away >< is there a way to get rid of old direct messages that are not suppose to show anymore?
@g_masta
Twitterific offers built-in URL shortening btw. It uses tinyurl. But yes the lack of RT bothers me.