TweetDeck for iPhone: Here now

tweetdeck-img So far the iPhone twitter landscape has been a rich mix of well designed clients including the ruling champion Tweetie, Twitterrific, Twittelator, Twitterfon and others. There’s just too many to name at a stretch. But there was one brand of twitter client that was conspicuous by its absense, and that’s TweetDeck. The Air based client has garnered quite a few users (mostly windows users I presume), leading the charts as the top choice after the web client.

After a brief mention from Kevin Rose yesterday, TweetDeck for iPhone has landed on the App Store. And best of all, it’s free! Now all that remains to be seen is whether it’s as awesome as people hope it to be.

User Interface

tweetdeck-column Totally deviating from the Apple user interface guidelines, bring the desktop look and feel to the iPhone client, which may not be bad thing after all. The tab bar at the bottom is a much leaner version, with icons jutting out, giving it a totally different feel from the rest of the apps. I like it, you might not.

The most radical change in user interface is bringing Safari like tabs to implement the ‘columns’ TweetDeck Desktop is famous for. You can have columns for your friends timeline, favourites, @mentions, among others. To switch the through the columns you can thumb through them, tap on buttons at the bottom, or bring up the birds eye view of all your column presented like Safari pages. You can tap and hold a column to put them in a jiggly mode similar to the iPhone home screen app dance. Rearrange the columns just as you see fit.

Looking at the screenshots I didn’t quite think I’d like TweetDeck, but actually using it totally has me sold. Moving between columns, having a broader look at your tweets, and the overall smoothness of all of this is really nice. As for the eye candy, typography it still has some rough edges (it’s no Twitterrific), but from a usability point of view the user interface works.

Features

TweetDeck has a full set of features you would expect from a twitter client gunning for top spot. Multiple accounts, twitpic support, url shortening, etc.. But it has some features, that are not seen on any other client out there. First, is desktop syncing. You can sign up for an optional TweetDeck account, which will sync all your unread counts and columns back to the desktop client. This is great for those who have multiple columns, keeping track of a more than two accounts. Personally speaking I’m not too big on keeping count of my updates, so tapping “mark seen” every time I want to update the count doesn’t quite cut it.

Second, is tracking searches and groups. Unlike others which allow you to save a search, TweetDeck’s column actually updates them and presents them in a sort of pseudo-growl implementation within the client. So I can be notified whenever there’s an update for “smoking apples” without having to manually check for it.

tweetdeck-screenshots

Third, is a good implementation of Groups. Just add a new column, set a group name, and add users to the list. However, you need to be following those people to add them to a group. Unlike Twittelator Pro which already has this groups feature, TweetDeck notifies you of any updates, and the user interface is far more suited to the task.

Fourth, is shake to refresh! I can’t believe they finally did it. Didn’t hurt so much now did it?

Final thoughts

TweetDeck for iPhone (iTunes link) is an excellent twitter client, one that I’m surprisingly drawn to. The user interface is radically different from the rest of the apps, and although a little rough in certain areas, I’d say it’s a damn good user interface. TweetDeck iPhone has still got some glitches and bugs, but those will be fixed out soon. I will continue to use Twittelator Pro for my iPhone, which has a feature set that far surpasses any iPhone twitter client, but TweetDeck will stay on my home screen for a little more time. It might just turn me over.

Reader Comments

brnmbrns June 17, 2009 at 8:45 pm twitter.com/brianxburns: I just absolutely do not like this app.
I think the interface is a mess.
I don’t have the time to go in to all the reasons why I dislike it, but I would just like to express that I dislike this app.
oliver June 17, 2009 at 8:50 pm: i actually don’t mind it at all. thought i’d hate it but no.
Neal June 17, 2009 at 8:52 pm intoyourhead.com: Wow, thanks for that stunningly useful and powerful contribution.
Patrick Patience June 17, 2009 at 10:10 pm: Screw software development, web design, etc. My future occupation will be selling the rights to use screenshots of my tweets as seen throughout various Twitter clients. I’ll make a killing.
Milind Alvares June 18, 2009 at 1:38 am soggysh.it: @Patrick: The goal is to get your avatar on so many sites that you can never change again.

@brnmbrns: Twitter client choices are extremely subjective. That’s why there are so many of them. I sometimes sit down and wonder why anyone would use a particular client, while I’m sure they think the same of others. As for the interface, I think it’s perfect for those who want to manage a lot of on twitter.

If you’re using a single twitter account, without keeping constant searches on different terms, TweetDeck’s UI is not suited to the task. Tweetie or Twittelator would do much better. But no one watches twitter like TweetDeck does.
Patrick Patience June 18, 2009 at 1:59 am: @Milind: Haha, well played sir. Or we can use the plan I came up with yesterday which is to change it to a new non-lame avatar but then place the previous on with like a 1:10 ratio the new one. We’ll see how that goes down.