There is absolutely no shortage of Twitter apps available for the iPhone. But in my mind (and the minds of many others) one stands above all the rest: Tweetie. And while the app has undergone several small tweaks since it was first released last year, a big time revamp is about to hit: Tweetie 2.
We’ve been testing out of the app for a few weeks now, and I’m happy to report that it’s the Tweetie you know and love, but better.
Maybe you’ve seen some tweets from users in recent weeks labeled as coming from “Bigbird”? Yeah, that’s Tweetie 2.0. Some may recall that this was also the code name for Tweetie for the Mac right before it launched. The reason for the nickname is that Tweetie 2 is built on top of the Project Bigbird core, which Atebits developer Loren Brichter first developed for Tweetie for Mac. This means an iPhone Tweetie that is “faster, slimmer, and much more powerful,” as Brichter puts it.
So what’s new? A lot. Here are the big ones.
Persistence — Tweetie now remembers the last thing you were browsing when you closed the app. This means if you were on a user’s Twitter profile, you will go back there when you open the app again.
New message indicators — When you have a new @reply or direct message, you will now see a glowing blue light below those sections to let you know.
Scroll up to reload — Rather than having a separate reload button, to reload your main tweet stream, you simply now scroll up, hold for a second, and Tweetie will check for new tweets.
More third-party service support — You can now use services such as Favstar.fm (which we’ve covered here), Tweet Blocker, and Follow Cost.
Live-filtering search — At the top of your tweet stream is a Search Timeline option from which you can search your stream. The best part about this is that it filters as you type. Very sexy. You can also search your mentions this way.
New tweet options — Bringing up the tweet box (the area where you write your tweets) if faster than ever. But there are also a range of new options if you hit the 140 character counter. You can now easily geotag tweets (presumably this will work with the Twitter Geolocation API when it goes live, but for now it inserts a Google Map link), search for hashtags to include, and even search the people you follow to find someone to @ reply to (this is very nice).
Draft manager — If you’re the kind of person who writes tweets to send at a later time, Tweetie 2 has a draft manager where you can save multiple drafts of tweets.
New tweet stream options — One of the nice features about Tweetie from the get go was that swiping a tweet to the right brought up a range of options for things you could do with that tweet. Tweetie 2 o offers even more of these including new ways to retweet, quote tweets, post a link to a tweet, mail tweets, and translate tweets. If there is a link in the tweet, you also have a bunch of options.
Notifications — Yes, you can now get Push Notifications for specific users’ tweets on your device. [Update: My bad, these are not Push Notifications, but rather a way to toggle on and off the SMS notifications that Twitter sends.]
Create iPhone contacts from Twitter profiles — Pretty self-explanatory, pretty awesome.
Saved searches — The searches you save on Twitter.com are now synced with Tweetie.
Landscape — The whole app now works in Landscape mode. Or you can disable that.
More threaded conversations — One of the really nice UI elements of Tweetie for Mac is that is allows you to easily see a threaded conversation view between people. You can now do this on Tweetie 2 as well simply by clicking on who a tweet is in reply to.
Video support — If you have an iPhone 3GS (Tweetie 2 requires iPhone 3.0 or above, but will work on older iPhones that that OS) you can also easily upload videos to Twitter via services such as yFrog.
Get It…Soon
So those are a lot of the big changes, but there are many more subtle ones as well. The main takeaway is that if you’re addicted to Tweetie 1, there isn’t anything in Tweetie 2 that you won’t like, and several things that are greatly improved. It’s simply a must-download.
So when will it be available? Brichter plans to submit to the App Store at some point this week, so you can look for it sometime in the next couple of weeks depending on the approval process. The app will be $2.99, just like the first version was. Sadly, this will not be a free upgrade for existing Tweetie for iPhone users, as Britcher considers this to be (and has made it) a completely new app. Still, it’s easily worth the price.
One more thing
Brichter has also revealed that he is working on Tweetie 2 for Mac, and that it should be available shortly. He doesn’t give away too many details, but there are features such as syncing between the iPhone and Mac version. That will be a free upgrade if you already have a license for Tweetie for the Mac.
This part is confusing:
Notification — Yes, you can not get Push Notifications for specific users’ tweets on your device.
How is not having a feature – a feature?
yeah, sorry, now. fixed.
Have you tried using Twitdar? It’s not a replacement for Tweetie, but a pretty nifty Twitter/GPS integration. It can send updates of your GPS location in regular intervals that you can set yourself. http://bit.ly/twitdar
OH NO MG YOU FORGOT MY FAVORITE FEATURE IN TWEETIE 2.0…
Probably better off not saying it here
Why not??? Please tell us!
oooo I can’t wait for the sync option, could this be the first app to do it. I’m stillw aiting for lounge to do it.
HUGE fan of the app…
I’m not sure I agree with the “no free upgrade” for the iphone app. I can understand his point though.
Yeah, that was my biggest concern. I had a feeling when I read the name “Tweetie 2″ that it wasn’t going to be.
I agree that it may have enough value that its worth another purchase, but considering more app updates ARE free, it certainly goes against the grain and won’t sit well with a lot of users.
I think the easy solution would be to offer a discount to existing users, but I’m not even sure if that’s possible with the app store.
And to clarify, I love Tweetie, have used it for a while and will continue to. Great user experience design in the product!
While I’m not overly thrilled with the non-free upgrade for existing iPhone Tweetie users, I’ll still pay the $2.99 to get Tweetie 2. Tweetie is pretty much the killer app for me on the iPhone. It’s the one that sees the most use from me and Tweetie 2 seems to be a great step forward.
So yea, I’m not excited about having to spend another $3 but it will be $3 well spent.
Clearly, all of us admitting that we’ll still pay the $2.99 is proof that he SHOULD be charging $2.99.
I’m a little irked considering that I just purchased Tweetie 1 a couple weeks ago. I love it–by far the best client I found for iPhone–and Tweetie 2 sounds well worth the upgrade. But I wish I had known about it when I bought the first version… would have stuck it out with a free client for a couple more weeks.
i won’t pay .. on edge, how much more do i need? and how much more does the developer need? bad smell, despite the quality hype
Whats this have that Twitterific doesnt?
Wow, a whole $3 for an application that does all that?! That’s an outrage. The audacity of wanting to get paid for all those late nights coding and responding to feature requests! What an arrogant jerk expecting people to pay the equivalent of 1 1/2 cups of coffee for an app they’ll use every damn day, all day long. Yeesh!
I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks in private Beta. You won’t regret paying $2.99 for Tweetie 2.0. It’ll be the best app on your iPhone for quite some time..
He released a perfectly good Twitter client in Tweetie v1. People aren’t entitled to these new features just because they own the v1 release.
What a previous poster said is valid. It would be an excellent move to release Tweetie v2 discounted for people who own the v1. However, he can’t because that’s a limitation imposed by Apple. So, he’s doing the next best thing. Instead of giving his (obviously) hard work, he’s charging for it. Good for him!
We need more of this is the AppStore. Developers need to take pride in (good) work, and people should respect that.
You didn’t complain about paying for say, Gears of War 2 did you? I mean, its the same title? Its the same characters? And yet, people didn’t feel nearly as entitled to walk to WalMart and demand that for free.
Hello,
I am the domain name owner of http://www.twittercrunch.com
Based on the posting trends of this website it appears that “TC” should actually stand for “TwitterCrunch” rather than “TechCrunch”.
Therefore I am willing to sell you my domain name of TwitterCrunch to more accurately represent the content of your website.
In fact, I am willing to give you the domain name for free.
No. Since this site is obviously so far in denial I will PAY YOU to take this domain name. Please contact me for arrangement of the domain transfer.
Yours truly,
Bob@twittercrunch.com
We’ll take if off your hands if you pay us an additional amount just south of Twitter’s latest valuation.
south? i vote for north.
I forgot. Greed is good!
greed works.
Well played, Bob. Well played.
Haha, that made me pee a little. As if anyone ever heard of your dinky little site.
I still like Tweetdeck. You can interact with multiple accounts and form group of people you follow.
Also, try following someone in Tweetie 2.0 and see what it says, then update the Notifications thing again
I agree with you Dan. Tweetie is a great app, but the developer’s decision to force us to pay for a version upgrade is really lame. He can feel that it’s an all new app if he wants, but what’s there to stop every paid app developer out there from saying every single version upgrade turns their app into an “all new app”? I smell greed.
You are seriously complaining about spending less than the price of a hamburger on a piece of software that’s been four+ months in development and that you will use ten PLUS times per day.
The money isn’t much at all, but my current version works just fine other than the retweet syntax. When I upgraded Twitteriffic, I ended up with a slower Twitter app featuring an overloaded UI. At least that was free. But I’m concerned with a repeat performance and may just leave well enough alone.
its $3!!!
Skip a latte for the day, and you’re set.
It has nothing to do with GREED and everything to do with getting what they deserve. It’s a complete and total rewrite – it’s safe to say that more work went into 2.0 than went into 1.0 originally. I am glad a developer finally had the balls to do something like this, and it makes sense to me it was for Tweetie.
The price is well justified as I have been testing it for weeks now.
um… Yeah. Everybody should probably work for free. Dillon, what do you do? Do you collect a paycheck for it? I’m sure you do.
If I need a few weeks of your time, you don’t mind if I don’t pay you for it, right?
It’s a complete new app, and it’s not just a regular bug fixing update. Then, charging for it sounds fair to me. I’ll gladly pay the $3 it cost.
And as far as I’m concerned, pretty much all developers charge for big updates
Dillion, there is another reason to charge you for the new version. Push Notification is NOT a free service. Other iPhone Apps like iTweetReply are paid for apps, because the developers need to recoup the push Server costs.
I’m definitely willing to buy the Tweetie 2.0 upgrade.
Tweetie 1 is pretty over hyped (thanks TechCrunch) and doesn’t hold a candle to Twittelator Pro. That said, I’m willing to give Tweetie 2 a try and maybe it will catch up to the hype of tweetie 1.
I tried Twitterlator Pro and found it to be a so-so iPhone Twitter client. Sure it has a lot of features, but it didn’t have some of the smoothness that Tweetie has. The little slides you can do in Tweetie from the timeline to reply, favorite, or lookup a profile make Tweetie really nice. It’s the little things that matter. Another app might have had more features but the basics weren’t implemented as nicely as Tweetie.
I have a different opinion about the basics. Having to click through to a new screen before following a link is a pretty poor way to implement link following. Also, and I know this is all a matter of opinion, but having to leave the application to change settings is a poor design choice IMHO. Although, Tweetie does have super smooth scrolling compared to most other twitter apps, I think atebits made some pretty poor usability choices. As for it’s design, you better like one of the three choices you get, because that’s it! And if he does add more designs (or themeing like Twittelator Pro) then you had better have some time because you’ll be opening and closing the app to try out the different themes…
Having to leave the app to change settings is what Apple SUGGESTS everyone does. That way you can change all your app settings from the Preferences Pane on the iPhone instead of going into each app trying to figure out where the settings are.
NOT using the Apple method is a poor design choice.
And sometimes Apple acts like an idiot. It’s never a good idea to follow the pied piper blind.
That’s an interesting argument. Apple suggests it, so anything else is a “poor design choice.” Apple might also suggest I jump off a bridge, but I wouldn’t think that was a good idea either.
Look, I stated above that this is my opinion and I say that having to leave your application to make simple tweaks to the UI, (i.e. change the number of initial tweets, change the theme or change the font size) is bad usability.
I am somewhat puzzled by all the hype over Tweetie 2. I really don’t see any features here that Twittelator Pro hasn’t had for the past few months already (except syncing searches from Twitter back to it….though that hardly makes it a killer app.) OOhhhh, so if you have a new message there will be a little blue light to indicate that….most other Twitter apps do better by giving you a number badge, not just a little blue light. Mabye there will be minor UI differences but that is because many other Twitter apps had better UIs than Tweetie 1.0. I have used 6 different iPhone Twitter apps and tend to recommend Twitter (1.0) for twitter newbies since it does the least of any Twitter app…then Echofon (formerly Twitterfon) was the winner until the latest release of Twittelator Pro. (TweetDeck…don’t get me started…more hype and flash than stability.)
So, bottom line, unless there are some other features too amazing to discuss in the info that has been released so far….there is nothing special I see in Tweetie 2 that warrants the hype of blowing everything else out of the water. Unless that water is somebody’s little lake while Twittelator Pro, Echofon, and all the other Twitter apps are sailing the big oceans.
Well it’s about time they did something. Been very quiet on the Tweetie front.
“Tweetie 2 for Mac will be a completely free upgrade.” http://bit.ly/UtqkU
yes, that’s for mac, different than iphone, as i note in the post.
You know, MG, I’m surprised that your uncanny sense of justice doesn’t nail Tweetie for putting out a long-needed update and charging for it.
“Message indicators,” for instance, are a staple in most other free Twitter apps, and they’re just now adding it to Tweetie? This isn’t right. I know it’s $3, but it’s not right.
nice. so after my tweetie app failing to load on and off for months, now we have to pay for an upgrade.
I completely agree with you.
Those failing to load errors has everything to do with TWITTER being screwed up and NOTHING to do with TWEETIE not doing something right.
Educate yourself before you attempt to bash, seriously.
actually it *IS* a free update if you bought 1.0 according to them:
http://atebits....ird-redux1.html
What’s the deal?
“Tweetie 2 for Mac will be a completely free upgrade. (So if you haven’t already grabbed a license, feel free to do so). On the other hand, Tweetie 2 for iPhone will be a whole new app. And while it’s arguably worth a lot more, I’m keeping the price exactly the same: $2.99.”
that’s tweetie for mac, tweetie for iphone is different.
Actually no, it is *NOT* a free update (according to them) for the iPhone, only for Mac.
doh. swore i read that twice and said otherwise.
thanks…
not that big of a deal i guess
Instapaper support?
Nevermind, just noticed that it was added in 1.2
Woo! Hoo! I get to go back to using Tweetie again!
yup.
i don’t blame them for trying to bring in revenue, but it’s a pretty big FU to their users.
I buy stupid stuff all the time, but I have a problem with his upgrade path. I think I’d rather try another app instead first. This leaves a bad taste in my mouth as far as him as a developer.
This could cause some serious backlash. I’m tempted to ask for an App store refund so I can buy the new version just to make a point.
Good idea. Please let us know if you can get them to give you the refund if you decide to try.
I completely agree with the people complaining about the upgrade price.
I went into Starbucks yesterday and bought a lovely coffee, and when I went back today and asked for a refill, they said I had to pay again.
Can you believe the outrageous presumption of these people. That I should have to pay twice! Just because it cost them more to make me another cup of coffee.
I’m tempted to ask for a refund. Having eternally free coffee is the only way that the customer is not getting screwed.
Based on your logic, maybe you should pay him each time you open the app? Sounds fair?
dude, its $3 for a totally re-written app. You paid $200 for a Windows upgrade, or $30 for snow leopard, both of which are just service packs to already “functional” software.
Its $3. Its one of the most used apps out there. Grow up Peter Pan.
Each and every user is free to decide if they will upgrade.
I’m making it clear that I won’t be, I’d rather spend my money with a worth while developer who values their installed user base. Possibly Birdfeed.
As for what you have written above, Apple offered a discounted upgrade path for existing leopard users. They didn’t charge them full price because it was rewritten in 64 bit.
And finally, telling people to grow up right before calling them names is a bit of an oxymoron isn’t it?
Rather than getting T2 (I have Tweetie) I am holding out for Mixero’s iPhone app. If it’s anywhere near as good as their desktop app I’ll be set.
Another hit for generation Y
WOW. Soooo stoked!!
Despite all iphone twitter apps out there Tweetie stands out, big advantage over most clients is that Tweetie does everything itself such as web browsing, bookmarking, etc, so you don’t need to leave the app. That’s good news we have a major upgrade, the landscape mode is a must have feature, thank God they implemented.
I Just don’t agree about paying for that
oOOoo can’t wait…
MG – what about Tweetdeck – it seems to be like thats the superior iPhone app because of the column/grouping structure. I only follow about 150 people but without columns I would never be able to make heads or tails of it, and I’d miss a huge amount of tweets from the less prolific users I follow.
Does Tweetie have any kind of feature that compares? I can’t see myself dropping Tweetdeck for the iPhone for Tweetie without grouping.
I don’t know about you, but Tweetdeck is too unstable for daily usage. I like the columns, but it needs an update before I can spend more time in it (without crashing out).
This is really impressive. The best got better.
I’m a huge fan of Tweetie and use it on my iPhone 3GS and Mac, but this no upgrade for free nonsense is BS and just an attempt to screw previous purchasers.
First and foremost yes the new version offers some nice new features and for me love the fact that the new one offers video upload, but c’mon? Most of these features were in free apps already on the store and if you really want to save money and already own the first version… just use Tweetie 1 for most of your Twitter activity and then use Echofone (formerly Twitterfone) which is free to do the rest of the stuff like upload video to yfrog etc…
I’m all about making money, but simply screwing your current fan base is just stupid business and will eventually come back to haunt them. Plus, do some research on Twitter search and you’ll see all the complaints over the last month or two about all the problems with Tweetie for Mac and iPhone with little to no response from the developers. They basically just ignore emails and support requests.
Again I say all this even though I’ve tweeted and blogged previously about how much I love Tweetie, but this is BS. I know it’s only $3, but it’s the principle.
Oh the irony! TwitPic screenshot of Tweetie for Mac. http://twitpic.com/jj6×1
I use both Tweetdeck and Tweetie. Tweetdeck has some convenient features (ie, special searches I have saved) but I often find myself going to back to Tweetie because it is simply faster. It is the fastest Tweetie app I have used (i have 4 different apps installed). Also, I never DM from Tweetdeck anymore because they never go through as DMs!! They show up in my public timeline…so once again I find myself using Tweetie to DM amongst a few other things. The $3 for the upgrade doesnt really bother me. Push notifications will rock
Overall I’m a big fan of Tweetie.
My only complaint is the the control to send DM & Tweet publicly. For some reason I keep tweeting when I mean to DM someone. Not good if you are trying to have a private conversation.
Am I the only one who’s done this?
I just bought Tweetie last week, after months of debating whether I needed to buy yet another iPhone Twitter app. I thought, “Hey, it’s supposed to get updated to version 2 in a couple of weeks- that will be cool.”
Darn. I may email Loren about this…
Please do. We all should.
See, that’s just unfortunate – I feel your pain here… maybe hit up Apple for a refund? Who knows.
You spent MONTHS debating a $2 purchase?
I love tweetie more than any other app, but without groups it’s basically useless to me.
So in other words, “Thanks for buying our previous, underwhelming product. We would now like you to re-buy our next version, which will certainly be almost immediately surpassed by a free app from someone else.” No thanks. I’ll be checking out TweetDeck or some other app that at least offers free upgrades.
One of the best apps out there. Received our “Best” rating.
You think you could make it clear what you wrote here, and what parts you copy-pasted?
We TextExpander users have cause for celebration: Tweetie 2 for the iPhone includes TextExpander touch integration. And TextExpander touch is only $1.99 for 48 hours (to celebrate the release of another TextExpander-integrated app, WriteRoom).
I smell spam.
Tweetie 2.0 sounds promising with tons of new features taking advantage of OS 3.0. Although, v2.0 has tons of new feature I still don’t understand why you exisiting users have to pay to upgrade. I do understand lot work has been done for it but like everyone here says.. itsn’t a good idea to make it a paid upgrade. Why couldn’t the app use ‘In App Purchase’ feature that came with OS 3.0 and charge $.99 exisiting users to enable 2.0 features (video etc.,) that way exisiting users won’t feel ripped and this will attract news users too.
Keep the app priced at $1.99 and to enable 2.0 features pay $0.99 (one time fee!), may be another $0.99 when v3.0 comes.. that way the developer still makes money and keeps the exisiting user base happy? I am not sure if this is possible or ‘In App Purchase’ are only for subscription based model?
Finally, why Tweetie 2.0 want’s you $$?
“Making a “2.0” could have been easy. I could have changed the version number, added video tweeting and called it a day. Other apps call that “2.0” – I think it’s lame.”
Hmm!
That said, I’m looking forward for Tweetie 2.0 for iPhone
As a side note: I have no problem with a paid upgrade- that’s the way software has been for years. Sure, the iPhone operates on a different basis, but some iPhone apps are very polished and elegant. What I don’t like is buying an app and then a mere two weeks later having to pay for it again.
I can’t believe Tweetie 2.0 is going to cost. I’ve already got many of those features in free Twitter apps. Unbelievable.
Now updated the desktop client!
4th consecutive article about twitter … and counting
I love that you have to qualify your opinion that tweetie is the best Twitter app with ‘many others’ feel the same way. Speak for yourself. Appealing to the strength of the masses just makes you look like a hack.
I much prefer birdfeed, but I don’t judge apps by number of features.
Tweetie is nice, but I think the app with the most sex appeal is Birdfeed (http://birdfeedapp.com/).
Bloody gorgeous!
it would be even better if you knew how to put a link here, tard.
I believe the express is DO WANT
Every upgrade soon will be called a full rework. And
customers expected to pay. At minimum give upgrade price to prior owners …
This looks amazing. I can’t wait! This is by far the app I use the most. He did an amazing job.
I will be glad to spend the $2.99 for the new version. Love the current one and glad to support smart developers and software.
Twitter: mtaylor
So if I don’t have a license for Tweetie, I’d have to pay to upgrade?
(I’m talking about the Mac version, not the iPhone one.)
What do you think?
The guy making this app is very clever. He slams on other app developers for adding free features (and constant updates) in their twitter apps by calling them lame and the features he seems to be adding in tweetie 2 are are same exact ones in existing apps. I’m guessing this person made a ton of money with tweetie and he’s charging again to create a new revenue stream.
To be fair the app is only 3 bucks but that’s besides the point. I’m guessing there will be a new tweetie app to buy every year or so and people will buy the app every year because the name has a very powerful mindshare!
I think he’s missing the boat on the revenue stream… Personally, I would offer a “lite” version at .99 (free upgrade from v.1) and a “Pro” version at 4.99. There, you have the potential to gain 6.00 per user without seeming greedy… and everyone’s happy. The dev really seems to have developed quite a narcissistic attitude about Tweetie and Twitter in general.
While I’m a little disappointed in the “no upgrade” path for Tweetie 2; hopefully the rapid sales of Tweetie 2 will finally convince Iconfactory to tone down the garish UI in Twitterrific. Really, with a less “in your face” UI, Twitterrific is still the best out there. That said, I’m still a Tweetie user, waiting for Twitterrific to calm down.
Echophon Pro (formerly Twitterphon) has been doing almost all of that for a very long time. Landscape, push, desktop/iPhone sync (via Firefox plugin), convo threads… and had always been noticeably faster (since it saves a lot of tweets you view to memory). Tweetie’s not bad but is hardly doing anything newsworthy IMO.
This is the first time hearing of this app hope its good.
I will gladly pay for this. It’s amazing how much people will take and take for free. Pay up cheapos.
cool