Okay Geek Farm
App Review: Twitter for Android
Darryl Cobb
Twitter is quickly gaining more and more of my attention as far as social networking, and after protesting it and mocking it’s users as attention needing and narcissistic, I fell victim to its spell. And I have to say, I enjoy Twitter more from my EVO 4G than from my laptop. So with that, this will be the first review of several apps that will allow you to get your “tweet” on the road. And to get the party started, we should start with my favorite, Twitter for Android.
The Fluff
It’s a beautiful app. One of the most high polished designed apps for Android. I would say it’s second only to HTC’s Peep in design quality. Your going to enjoy it’s ease of use and the ability to jump right in. You going to appreciate the ability to customize the settings so it doesn’t drain your battery. It pretty much fulfils almost every need you’d want as a regular user of Twitter. Another feather in its cap is that it’s very easy to turn off location based information when you update your status.
The Reality Check
If you’re a power user with the need to use multiple accounts simultaneously, it’s not there for you. If you like the old way of reTweeting, it doesn’t do it natively. Twitter for Android will do it with a handy download called ReTweet. Another thing going against it is selecting any Trending Topic hashtag won’t allow you to create a message. It will only allow you to search all the messages with that hashtag.
What I want in it?
For the power users, there should be a way to have more than one account at the same time. That needs to be added. And please, can we get a way to automatically select a Trending Topic to post in a message? That’s the thing I want most. Also, some links (like Formspring) don’t show up, forcing me to go out of the Twitter app in order to actually click on them. This is a minor annoyance.
My quick “you’re running short on time” rating: “WIN”
Hardcore Social Media Addict Review (continued)
Right off the bat, I want you to know you that if you are not running Eclair (Android 2.1) (and I don’t see why you’re not) this will not be available for you. So if you got the much needed pastry, then I suggest you continue to read on, if not, don’t say I didn’t warn you. You’re only torturing yourself.
First thing I notice about Twitter for Android is the user interface is very attractive and clean. If you’re a tech savvy veteran, you’ll instantly know how to navigate to your favorite areas, if you’re a rookie, it won’t take you long to figure it out. Everything makes sense. I actually like the real time Trending Topics quotation bubbles that pop up at the bottom, and what’s not to like about an animated background on the splash page? It’s easily recognizable when you have new tweets, mentions or direct messages. The color scheme is the original baby blue and white that we’ve come to recognize as Twtter’s trademark and they use it well.
Now diving into the settings — it’s your usual flavor and I’m glad it’s here. You can set your refresh rate between 5 minutes if you are an addict or 4 hours if you are simply using Twitter as a news reader. Also available is the ability to Sync your Contacts with your Twitter contacts. You can even customize if you want to be notified for direct messages, mentions or general tweets which is a good look and for your excessive battery managers, you can even turn off the animations.
Now let me just get this out of the way now. Since this is the Official Twitter App for Android, retweeting is going to work how Twitter wants it. This means that when you push the retweet button, you want be able to edit or add to the message you are retweeting. For some, this is a deal breaker, but there’s a handy extension you can download from The Android Marketplace called reTweet. What this does is allow you to reTweet just like the old days, and alter the message before posting.
The widgets are decent enough and I guess the only real downer for me is they only come in 4x2 and 4x1 with a true full page widget not included. They are quick and responsive and very clean looking. However, I would prefer a full page Twitter widget instead of the small and medium but they are functional and are very easy to use nonetheless.
The long and the short of it is, Twitter for Android is a great app but not perfect. Only a couple of things keep me from giving the Twitter App and “EPIC WIN” rating. They are little annoyances from me considering this app completely perfect but take it from me, you will not be disappointed. After all, this is the first version (and what a way to start things off!)
