By: Hillel Fuld
Putting the name of the app aside (it is supposedly pronounced “Twitter” with a French accent), Touiteur is starting to close the gap between iPhone and Android Twitter apps. I was talking to a friend yesterday about her new Droid and she was telling me how she thought she was able to use iPhone apps on her Android phone. The reason she thought this was because she and her iPhone-owning friends seems to have what looked like the same apps on their phones.
I explained to her that the games she is talking about might be the same type of game, might even be the same developer, but the apps are for different platforms and are therefore not the same app. The important thing I took away from that conversation is that to a normal person (not a geek like me), the Android apps are really starting to catch up in terms of their look and feel to iPhone apps.
Now, let me say, I am using an Android 1.5 device with a relatively weak processor, so to me, the iPhone games still outperform the Android games by a lot. However, one of the most important apps on my iPod Touch if I am judging by the amount of time I spend with it open, is my Twitter app. Not going to get into which one I use because that is not the point. There are at least five Twitter iPhone apps that I can think of, which had no competition on the Android platform, until last month when Touiteur was released.
The interface of Touiteur is slick and streamlined with five icons along the bottom. There is Tweets, Mentions, Messages, Search, and Refresh. Sounds to me a lot like some iPhone apps I know and love. When you press on Tweets, a popup is displayed with a few options. You can tweet something by selecting New Tweet, view your Twitter lists, read the latest trends, and view your favorites. To be honest, it took me a few minutes to find these features and specifically the lists when I first opened the app. Not sure Tweets is the best place for it.
When pressing on a tweet, you can easily reply, view the links in the tweet, retweet, DM the person, view their profile, add it as a favorite, share it via email, or copy the tweet to the clipboard. The entire app works in landscape mode, which makes it a whole lot easier to use. When pressing on the phone’s Settings button, you can jump to the top, refresh the trends and lists, or adjust the app’s settings.
The Settings screen allows you to add multiple accounts, connect the app when the phone restarts, save your last list position, display usernames or full names, choose RT style, and many many more options. Other settings that can be configured are the notifications, the look and feel of the app, the URL shortening method, picture hosting, and the list continues…
The bottom line is, as nice as it is to have so many options with Touiteur, what gets me is the interface. It is much more similar to any iPhone Twitter app than apps like Twidroid or Seesmic (don’t get me wrong, both great apps). Touiteur is, in my opinion, the best Android Twitter app by far, and with a few slight improvements, I would go as far as to say, it can even compete with the best iPhone Twitter apps.
As usual, there is a free version and a premium one, with the differences being minor, as of now. I would highly recommend Touiteur to any Android user who misses the smooth feeling of tweeting from an iPhone.
Our Rating: 4/5
Developer: Level Up Studios