Review: Tweetdeck for the iPhone

On the 16th, as most iPhone users were gearing up for the release of version 3.0 of the iPhone OS the next day, Tweetdeck launched the very first version of its iPhone client. Many, myself included, were interested to see how Tweetdeck, an application known for taking up a great deal of screen real estate, would pare down for the iPhone.

However, many were pleasantly surprised by just how elegant Tweetdeck for the iPhone turned out to be. Tweetdeck is known for being sluggish and memory intensive on the desktop, so finding a light and effective, though still feature-rich app on the iPhone was a welcome discovery.

The fact that it is also free was simply the icing on the cake.

But does Tweetdeck for the iPhone really live up to its hype? Well, I’ve been using it for the past two days and I think I can safely say that the answer is, for the most part, yes.

Tweetdeck Basics

On the desktop, Tweetdeck is best known for its use of columns to display information. This makes it easy to view all of your Twitter-related information, including your timeline, mentions, messages, searches and any groups you created, all at one glance. However, this has always come at the price of screen space and at the risk of information overload.

Tweetdeck for the iPhone brings its columns with it, but in a much more controlled way. To work on the limited iPhone screen, Tweetdeck displays only one column at a time and lets users “flick” through them with a swiping motion.

For the most part, this feels very natural. The app moves very well on the iPhone and still manages to have a very robust feature set including everything one would expect from an iPhone Twitter app including TwitPic integration, following users, replies, searches, etc. Though it lacks location awareness, its overall a feature-complete app that can do just about anything other Twitter apps can.

However, Tweetdeck for the iPhone has one very special feature that sets it apart from the pack, synchronization with its desktop client.

Syncing Up

One of the best features of the Tweetdeck desktop client is its ability to create groups and add custom searches as permanent new columns. This way, you can follow specific users more closely and keep on top of your topics of interest, all without taking an eye off of your usual streams.

The iPhone client has this feature as well but, if you register for an account with Tweetdeck, the iPhone app will synchronize with your desktop one, making them a cohesive unit. All one has to do is register for a Tweetdeck account, which is separate from your Twitter one, and watch as your phone updates with your computer’s information or vice versa.

This means, for example, if you add a column on your desktop client, it will be available on your phone the next time you open it up. Similarly, if you add anyone to a group from your phone, they’ll be in the group when you get to your computer as well. All of this is done automatically and almost completely seamlessly.

This means that, as you move from your phone to your computer(s), your Twitter environment stays the same. You don’t lose your groups or custom searches and don’t have to configure every computer by hand. This also means you have a backup of your settings should something go wrong later.

It is a very compelling feature and, looking around, I have not found another iPhone Twitter client that has this. Mixero is working on an app that will have this functionality with their desktop client (See: Previous Mixero coverage), but none are available yet.

However, this isn’t to say that Tweetdeck is perfect. though it is a great app, it does have some minor flaws, most of which could probably be worked out in an update down the road.

Some Hiccups

In my use of Tweetdeck there have been a few minor issues that have jumped out at me, first being that the UI, at times, can be very confusing and unecessarily complicated.

For example, when you open Tweetdeck, you are initially in what is known as “Column View”, which looks like the phone is zoomed out from the actual text. The tweets are still readable and you can see the sides of the neighboring columns. However, all you do in this view is select a column and tap it to zoom in.

You can still swipe to go between the columns when zoomed in and there seems to be little use for “Column View” except for the fact that there are some functions you can only access within it, such as editing columns, adding people to groups, etc. This can lead to a lot of confusion if you’re in the wrong view and trying to perform one of these tasks.

Speaking of user management, it was also confusing learning how to follow and learn more about a user. By tapping on an individual Tweet you are given a “Quick Follow” options (under the “More” arrow) to follow other users by typing their name, but not necessarily the one in the Tweet. To do that, you have to go to their profile, namely by clicking the small arrow near their name.

However, the biggest problem, in my usage, is a series of bugs within the application.

First, tweets seem to disappear and reappear from within the application. This was a major problem earlier today as I waited the verdict in the Jammie Thomas retrial. I would see tweets appear in my stream, leave to go do something else, such as answer a text message, and when I returned the relevant ones would be gone. However, opening up the user’s profile in Safari showed the Tweets were still there.

Whether this was an issue with Twitter or Tweetdeck is unclear, but I’ve noticed it a few times over the course of using the app and it is not something I’ve noticed with Tweetie.

Even more frustrating was a reliability issue that would simply cause the app to crash at seemingly random times. I could not trace it to any one problem but sometimes, for no reason, it would just close, often when I was in the middle of reading a stream.

But despite these issues, Tweetdeck remains an, overall, very solid and reliable app as well as one that offers features no other iPhone Twitter client can match at a price that can not be beat.

Bottom Line

Though these issues are annoying and take some of the sheen away from Tweetdeck, the app still remains one of the best Twitter clients for the iPhone. Period. In fact, it has already replaced Tweetie on mine.

Whether one finds Tweetdeck useful will likely depend on whether or not you would want to add any extra extra columns in the first place. If you just visit your timeline, mentions and messages streams, you likely will find Tweetie on the iPhone easier to use, more stable and, most likely, slightly faster. However, if you’re a power Twitter user and you want groups, custom searches and additional streams, there really is no contest.

But what is perhaps most amazing about Tweetdeck for the iPhone is that it may cause many who had shied away from the desktop application to give it another try. Those, like myself, who had left it due to memory and other issues, are now giving it a second shot to take advantage of the synchronization.

Whether that will be a viable strategy for the long haul, especially as competitors start to create similar products. Most likely, Tweetdeck will not be alone for long in this field and it could, more than anything, signal the future for iPhone Twitter applications.

Written by Jonathan Bailey from Plagiarism Today
Posted on June 18th, 2009 and filed under Social Networking, Software & Programs
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