Paradox Designs

With the release of an official Twitter client for Android, Android users have yet another choice in their arsenal of apps. This new app, available for 2.1+ devices, is quite pretty, although limited in some features. But non-power users will likely find the app perfect. Keep reading for the full review.

First start

The first screen you see in the app

When you first start up the app, the first thing you may notice is the animated background. If this is the very first time you use the app, you will see a screen asking you for twitter account credentials. Put them in, and you are presented with sync settings. The sync feature works similar to that of the facebook app. It lets you choose if you want to update existing contacts, download new contacts, or just skip this step. More on sync in a minute. From here, you move to the homescreen¹. From the homescreen, you can access many features of twitter.

Sync

I promised I would get back to this. Android 2.* makes a big deal of Sync, and with the new APIs available in Android 2.1,  developers have an easy way to add easy sync, that doesn’t chew up your battery. Twitter makes use of these APIs, in the best way I have seen, outside the Facebook or, well Gmail, apps. Not only does it add your contacts, like Facebook does, but it also uses sync to pull new tweets down, so your battery wont be impacted. Contact sync seems moot. It’s a cool feature, but many people don’t want their phone contacts and twitter friends joined. Still, this option does make it easy to connect people together. I also noticed someone on one of the Android fansites complaining about an inability to change the contacts picture back to the Facebook or Google picture. This is quite simple to do.

1. Pull up the contacts, well, contact page
2. Hit menu, and choose Edit
3. Scroll down till you see the photo you want, say the facebook photo
4. Touch and hold on the photo till a menu appears
5. Click “Use this picture”
6. Save contact

Interface

Options popup on the profile page; lets you view all sorts of things

The interface is just plain gorgeous. On the home screen, you have quick access to all the functions you need for twitter, as well as the latest trending topics. Trending topics get a lot more attention in this app than they do in other apps, such as Twidroid. Posting a new tweet can be accomplished from any screen, simply by pressing the new tweet button at the top of the screen. This bar is context sensitive, but the features most commonly available are new tweet, search, and a link back to the homepage². When viewing a timeline or user profile, clicking the arrow button on the right of the tweets pops up a menu, with the usual actions, such as reply, retweet, favorite. However, there is no non-native retweet³, which many users will miss. Touching a users picture takes you to their profile. On the profile, you first see a timeline of their latest tweets. But by clicking the small button in the upper left corner, with a sillhouette of a person, you can access most everything else, such as friends and followers. Unfortunately, this is the only way you can view and manage your friends, followers, favorite tweets, blocked users, and whatnot. There is no other way to access this menu. From the homepage, you also have access to your Lists, mentions, Retweets, Direct messages, Trending topics, and your profile. On the Retweets page, you have the ability to not only view your retweets, but the posts you’ve made that have been retweeted by others. This feature is of questionable use, but is cool, and is unavailable in Twidroid right now. For trending topics, you can either click a balloon that pops up, or click the bird to view a list.

Just noticed something else. New tweets have a small blue border on the left side

Settings

My first caveat: the only way to get to the settings page is via the homescreen, and a menu button. Hit menu on any other page, and you can’t find the link. Small, but could prove frustrating and confusing to some people. The settings page is quite limited, compared to many other twitter apps. I guess they are keeping the simple nature across all aspects of the app. From the settings page, you can set contact sync, tweet sync, the refresh interval for tweet sync, notifications, toggle the animated background, and choose photo and url services. There doesn’t seem to be any video service, or the option to log into either service. Bit.ly is provided as a URL service, but again, you cannot log in, so you don’t get stats.

Preformance

This is the most disappointing part of the app. The app seems to be quite slow. Loading the tweet timeline for the first time can take ages, even on Wifi, and loading most other pages is irritatingly slow. Profiles are probably the worst, and Direct messages the best, but this is my experience. People who use twitter instead of email may have an entirely different experience. The load times are puzzling, because most other twitter apps are lightning quick. I don’t know if its because they load the tweets first, and avatars later, or some overzealous throttling on this app, but it does get frustrating.

How does it fare against other Twitter apps

Twitter for android is very pretty, and quite capabile for a free app. While lacking some more powerful features; a basic user will find it more than capable. For people looking to get into android, it is a very good start. Basically, it boils down to this. If you bought a Twitter client, like Twidroid Pro or Touiter, then keep it, this won’t dethrone it any time soon, and the developers of these apps are likely to work harder now to keep up and beat out the official app. But if you are looking to start, and want something simple that lets you quickly tweet, Twitter for Android is your best bet.

Quicklist

Whats good:

• Beautiful Interface
• Trending topics
• Retweet views
• Contact sync
• Simplicity

What needs work:

• Single account only
• Non-native retweet³
• Performance
• Video attachments
• Accounts for Bit.ly and others

Download links

• Appbrain page

Gallery

1. I’m calling it this, for lack of a better word [↩]
2. The big blue twitter logo [↩]
3. The old method of retweeting, which is accomplished by RT @username tweet… This allows for the addition of comments [↩] [↩]