I've been using twicca now for the last 7 months and have found it to be easily the best Twitter client on the platform. Like most people I've dabbled in the other Twitter apps available, mostly when recommended by friends, but despite often being impressed with the latest 'bells and whistles' they offer, I always end up coming back to twicca.
Style
The home screen of twicca, much like every other Twitter app, shows the stream of tweets by the people you are following in a nice, clean and uncluttered view. The simplicity of the interface is one of twiccas strong points, and the basic, but bold themes give the app a great look. Along the bottom of the main screen, you have a 'new tweet', 'mentions', 'DM' and Refresh buttons.
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| default theme |
Replying, Retweeting...
Tapping on a tweet will bring up the interaction menu with many of the features you come to expect from a popular Twitter app and a few more besides. One of the most useful tools is the option to highlight a persons tweet in your timeline in a different colour for easy viewing, there are 9 different colours to choose from if you'd like to see your timeline look like a rainbow. By default, tweets mentioning you are shaded in the main timeline. A long press will allow you to select more than one tweet at a time, very handy if you want to reply to several people at once who aren't already in a conversation with you.
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| tap a message to open interaction options |
Tweeting like a pro
Create a new tweet by selecting the speech bubble icon from any screen, which will bring up a standard input box with options to use some advanced features while sending your message. The options include adding your GPS location, a recently used # tag, adding a picture or shortening a URL that you have pasted in from another source. The real time character count as always keeping you on your toes.
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| creating tweets is easy |
Data Friendly
When I'm using twicca on the go, i like to use the timeline settings in twicca to remove the profile pictures of user to make updating your timeline quick and easy, even over GPRS. Even without the profile pics displayed, the presentation is still clean and crisp enough to distinguish between messages.
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| speed up updates by removing avatars |
Plugins
Various plugins are available for twicca through the Android Market to extend usability even further, the most popular of which ads the ability to view pictures from popular Twitter companion sites (twitpic, yfrog) within the app without having to launch a separate browser. Selecting a tweet and tapping the picture link will cause it to open within twicca. There are many many plugins available on the Android Market, a list of which can be found here .
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| yfrog picture opened using plugin |
Widget
One of my favourite widgets, quick and easy access to Twitter
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| twicca home screen widget |
Summary
twicca has so many features and options packed into it that I'm finding new things to do almost every other week. Unlike many other Twitter clients I've used, when you think you should be able to do something from a certain screen, be it following a user, viewing a conversation, adding favourites or managing your lists - twicca always delivers what you want where you want without having you jump through a lot of hoops in the process.
The simple interface is easy on the eye, and hides many powerful options and tools that many app, including the official Twitter app, either do not have, or have implemented in a way that its a pain to even try.
The app is free, and although still claims to be in beta, has everything you could ever need/want to make the most of Twitter on the go.
Links:
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| twicca download |
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