I’ve been playing with Twitter clients over the past few days, trying to see which one would best serve my needs. Here are the results of what I’ve found. Oh yeah – obligatory twitter page pimp.
Before I dive into the various clients, I’ll first say that I found them all to be pretty easy to use as well as pretty much the same. There really aren’t any big differentiators. They’re all bubbly, web 2.0, with pretty much the same interface right down to the icons. There are differences in how you configure them, but with how infrequently you go through that I don’t see that as a differentiator.
Snitter – http://snook.ca/snitter/
- This was my first client and I found it pretty intuitive
- Text entry bubble is at the top
- Interface is a little bulky and there aren’t really any options aside from color.
- Requires Adobe Air -which sometimes has issues with quiting properly
Twhirl – http://www.twhirl.org/
- This is a bit tighter on the interface, which I like
- Good icons for conversations, as you can see on the top tweet (click through to larger version of the image)
- This can hide the text entry bubble (as shown here), but when in use, it’s at the bottom
- Ditto on Adobe Air issues
Twitterific – http://iconfactory.com/software/twitterrific
- Has integration w/ Growl
- Doesn’t let me type more than 140 chars, v. annoying. I often go a bit over then edit my message down to 140
- Does have good graphics for direct and reply messages
- Didn’t show up in the apple dock or spaces, I don’t like that voodoo
- It’s a free trial, it’s fully functional though
- Instant Messaging
- Quick and easy for posts
- Known interface and already installed – who doesn’t have an IM client?
- Most clients don’t tell you your character count, major downside, I’m too verbose
- Only usable for posting and receiving direct tweets
- Text Messaging
- I did this quite a bit from the EEC Email Evolution conference -very effective
- Really the only way to twitter on the move, it’s good to use this in conjunction with a desktop client
- It’s a bit slow because I don’t have a keyboard on my phone
- It’s costly because I don’t have a good text plan
Twitter.com
- Easy to use, very straight forward
- Nothing to install
- No auto refresh – which would be helpful
So where does that leave me? Well, no one is changing the game here. I’m not sure that you need to, but it definitely means that I’m not willing to pay for a client (Twitterific) if they’re only selling point is that their graphics are cuter.
I’m currently using twhirl because I like the more compact client than snitter, which otherwise seems nearly identical. Twitterific’s OS X issues and text entry limit were deal breakers for me. But I’ll keep my eyes out for any other clients that may pop up.
Did I miss any great clients? What is your preferred twitter tool? Let me know in the comments.