Tweetie: A Review

Posted in Apps, Technology on Apr 21st, 2009 | View Comments

So on Monday, 4/20, the internet was abuzz (I don’t do it, but notice the pun there) about a new Twitter client for the Mac called Tweetie.  Tweetie was developed by developer Loren Brichter under his company name, atebits.  What was all the buzz about?  Isn’t a Twitter client a Twitter client?  What sets one apart from the other?  Why on earth would anyone pay 20 dollars (15 as an introductory price) for a Twitter client?  Well, when using Tweetie, all of these questions are very easy to answer.

The first thing one notices when using Tweetie is its absolutely gorgeous user interface.  I’m not sure if the company is using some sort of core image/core animation integration or if they simply wrote the UI animations themselves, but either way, they’re beautiful.  The theme of the app fits in perfectly with Mac OS X Leopard and it makes heavy use of OS X’s keyboard shortcuts, which is a must for any heavy Mac user.  Here is a look at a profile page within Tweetie (my own of course). [I would insert it into this post, but I'm having issues with image insertions.]

So from this picture alone, it’s very easy to tell that atebits put quite a bit of work into making a nice looking app.  Here is a look at the main timeline. [Again, image insertion issues.]

Besides simply looking nice, the functionality of the app is incredible.  It makes full use of the Twitter API by allowing users to basically perform every Twitter function such as DMs, @replies, following/unfollowing, and search, all within the app.  In addition, it provides a lot of added functionality that the Twitter website itself does not.  This includes the ability to have URLs automatically shortened, image uploading simply by dragging an image into the compose window, and inline viewing of photos posted by other users.  Personally, my favorite feature is the ability to preview shortened links before they’re load.  Yes, that truly means no more rick rolling me!

When comparing this app to other Mac Twitter apps such as Twitterrific, it’s easy to see why this app shines.  Twitterrific was written back when users were using and interacting with Twitter differently than they are now.  Don’t get me wrong, I used Twitterrific for a long, long time and loved it; It simply didn’t evolve with the service its meant to interact with.  Twitter was and is changing, the way users are using twitter is changing, so Twitter apps need to make sure they’re changing and providing added and increased functionality for their users.  Tweetie is absolutely doing that by packing every possible (well, almost every possible – more on this in a second) feature into a very lightweight, clean, and professionally designed application.

Overall, I’d rate this app 10/10.  It’s almost damn near perfect.  My only three complaints/suggestions are these:

  • There is no ability to hide the dock icon.  Whenever hiding a dock icon is OS X, the application loses its menubar, so I can see why the company isn’t doing this at the moment.  It should, however, be an option in the future.
  • There is no option to delete a tweet.  This seems like it was most likely a simple oversight on atebit’s part.  I’m sure it’ll be coming soon.
  • For retweets, there should be an option in the preferences to use the “RT @username” style rather than the “(via @username)” style.

Other than that, this app is excellent.  I think that anyone who uses Twitter on a regular basis and is a Mac user should pick up this app.  It’s offered in two versions: a free, ad supported version, or the paid version (again, 15 dollars for now, 20 dollars after May 4th).

  • Alex

    I personally prefer the lack of an option to use the ‘RT @’ syntax to ‘retweet’ messages. Nothing says annoying Twitter douche more than seeing ‘RT’ after ‘RT’ in someone’s updates; it shows no independent thought or creativity, just an ability to copy and paste.

    The ‘via’ syntax on the other hand encourages someone to creatively reuse the content or link that they’re re-using from another person because, by name alone, they’re not ‘retweeting’ someone’s entire post but citing part of their work; in exactly the same way a quote is handled in any other written work.

  • http://winnopeg.com Andre

    Gotta agree with Alex here – the lack of an RT button is a good thing. Such an annoying practice.

    I still fail to see any major improvements over Twitterrific, however. It lacks search, separated lists for @replies and DMs, and the ability to load older tweets, but do you really need anything else? But maybe I’m just sore at all the negativity aimed at Twitterrific as a result of Tweetie’s release…

  • Mike

    Well, you do have to admit that development of Twitterrific was pretty stand-still. On my iPhone, I started using Twitterfon for the same reason. Twitterrific was just so plain and bare bones.

    Everything you said and more is exactly why I switched. I agree that there has been an onslaught of negativity about other clients since Tweetie’s release, but hey, who’s fault is that? Obviously Tweetie is a better product. So, I give kudos to atebits for that. They’ve showed us all what a Twitter client should be; they’ve shown us what we were missing.

    On the issue of RT, Alex, you want independent thought and creativity in 140 characters or less? And Andre, how in God’s name is it an annoying practice? I love spreading good tweets around. I don’t care either way how it’s done to be honest, but “RT” seems to be the more used option, and it uses less characters.

    Oh, what do you guys think of the new theme?

  • http://winnopeg.com Andre

    Twitterrific lacking updates is definitely true. I switched to Tweetie for iPhone (I give in to hype very easily ;) ) a few weeks ago because of the lack of developments on the iPhone version in particular. No tap-the-menubar-to-jump-to-top in the integrated web browser still? Ew. And on the iPhone, Tweetie works very well; things like the Twitpic integration make it a one-stop-shop for Twitter on the iPhone and that’s a very good thing. But on the Mac, I’ve felt no urge to upgrade Twitterrific since 2.0; it does everything I want it to do and I haven’t experienced any kind of bugs that I’d be looking forward to having fixed (unlike that annoying avatar bug in the mobile version…).

    [Thinking about it here, I guess I'm a modern Twitter user equivalent to a caveman -- I've never used Twitter search, never retweeted anything (excluding MacHeist), never adapted terms like tweeps, never participated (as far as I can recall) in any of the Twitter memes and never used any external Twitter related sites beyond Twitpic, yet consider myself an active Twitter user. Hm.]

    As far as RT goes, I’d guess the original concept was to use it when quoting another twitter user through their tweet. And though I can think of very few uses for this beyond sharing a holiday joke, there are no doubt places where a quote is appropriate. Thing is, Twitter users never use it in this capacity anymore; these days, it’s just used for passing on a link on or pointing out something the author thought was cool or found amusing… There is no reason for these things to be reposted as such; in my eyes, it’s really being used in place of the favorites feature or in place of having to write a couple words. Things like “RT @rotassator: Can anyone here handle a bike like this? http://tr.im/jsYh” (@RedheadRev) or “RT @ace_frehley: oh and a very happy earth day to all…” (@marthamargiotta) are what’s frequently found these days, and they’re absolutely retarded. If you want to share a link, copy the link, tell your followers about it/why they should check it out and add (via @username) at the end! If you want to tell your followers something, then just say it in your own words! There is absolutely no need to repeat mundane things like this, and in such a fashion; followers are following you, not these other random people. They want to hear what you have to say and see your shared ideas, not theirs. And on that note, if they are following the other random person as well, they’re then subjected to the same tweet twice (or more)… What’s interesting in that? Being subject to this kind of junk is what’s annoying.

    Gotta say, I don’t care much for the theme. The color, in particular, is awful, but the index layout isn’t too hot either. But whatever, finding a good WordPress theme is pretty hard these days. At least this one is usable.

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