Little more than four months ago I signed up for Twitter. While I am still not able to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes this webservice so appealing, I have since used it regularly to keep up-to-date with what some of my friends are up to, learn about 'net-related news that lies beyond my own radar, and find the odd gem of wisdom as inspiration. As much as I like Twitter per se, I am still a bit disappointed by the Twitter clients that are available for the Mac.
Although the design of the Twitter homepage is pleasantly lightweight, I still prefer a stand-alone client to tap into the stream of tweets and occasionally chirp away at a few tweets myself. So far, the client that works best for me, is Twitterific. It does have a few quirks, e.g., why does it select the top-most tweet after launch although it displays tweets in reverse chronological order? Shouldn't it select the bottom-most, i.e., the oldest tweet, so I can step through all tweets with the space bar?
Still, it feels as though it is the most polished with regards to UI, although that UI has a completely custom, non-Aqua look. Which bugs me, because I like my apps to fit into the overall look of the rest of the software I run.
Maybe I'm just being overly fastidious about these things, but I'd love to eventually find a client that has the following features.
Fully OS X-native application
Custom UIs are fun for Dashboard Widgets. For "real" applications, though, plain old Aqua is all that's needed. And let's not even get started with clients based on Adobe AIR: some of those may be very feature-rich, like Thwirl, but I think the way their UI looks and feels is awkward. And that's putting it mildly.
In my humble opinion, when in doubt, iChat may be a useful guideline in what a Twitter client's main window should look like.
Adopt useful features from other clients
Some clients' programmers have come up with useful, often transparent utility features in their software, e.g., automatic URL-shortening in Twitterific, the retweet function in Twhirl, or TwitterPod's search field. Would be nice to have a more or less complete set of these features available.
In-line threading
The feature I miss the most in Twitterific is being able to back-track a "in reply to" conversation: whenever I see a tweet that is a reply to someone else's, I need to resort to opening the person's Twitter page in a web client, find the respective tweet, and then click on "in reply to." Twhirl does at least show the link to the previous tweet; but when you click on it, it will open that tweet in a web browser.
Instead, wouldn't it be cool if the replied-to tweet would appear directly below the reply, maybe somewhat indented so it's obvious that that tweet's author is not on your list of followees? (If she is, just jump to the replied-to tweet in my stream.)
Originally, when I started writing this blog post, I was planning to come up with some more ideas, but the more I think about it, the more I feel that what I'd like to see is an application that compiles the "Aqua'ness" of NatsuLion, the feature ideas from Twhirl and TwitterPod, and the UI polish from Twitterific into one simple, elegant, and solid Twitter client for the Mac.
Do you have a favorite Twitter client that you use on your Mac, and which you consider to be The One True Client to Tweet Them All? Which one is it? And what extra features would you like to see added to it?
Categories
Mac
Read More Entries by Jochen Wolters.
Become an O'Reilly Member
Visit the Digital Media Forums
Subscribe to the Digital Media Blog Feed
Subscribe to the Digital Media Newsletter
Have you tried Twit Menulet? Unique because it lives in the menu bar...it is a bit hard to explain but it gives you a scrolling ticker of incoming tweets, which I love. It has to be the most unobtrusive of the Twitter clients. Full-featured, too, especially considering its small size.
AlexE:
Quite a few new Twitter clients for the Mac have been released lately or are in the pipeline as (sometimes public-)beta releases. For the time being, though, I'm quite happy with Syrinx. A follow-up post -- Playing Pan's Flute to Twitter From my Mac -- explains why it's my favorite.
So after doing a little research have you managed to find a suitable twitter client for the mac?
I use Tweetie for the iPhone as it handles multiple accounts but I'm looking for a desktop app for when I'm in the (virtual) office. I had a go with the one from the IconFactory but found it too intrusive. Any other recommendations?
rgds/alex
This site might help those searching for a Mac Twitter client:
http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps#Mac
I'm looking at just using Fluid http://fluidapp.com/ to make a WebApp window.
David
I've just downloaded the beta and am taking a closer look, but the first impression is very promising. Thanks for the pointer!
I'm currently using Nambu - http://www.nambu.com/ -as my main client, though am looking forward to v2.0 of Syrinx.
Pat
Syrinx, my current Twitter client of choice, does not select any tweet when launched.
Generally speaking, I prefer a clean design decision over extensive preferences, hence I would like a(ny) Twitter client to select the oldest "unread" tweet, regardless of whether the app has been newly launched or the tweet feed updated.
I'm not sure about after launching twitterific, however you can set where you want it to focus when it updates (last tweet selected, most recent, or keep same view). You make a good point that it should use this setting for launching as well.
Thanks, Gustavo, for the pointer.
The screenshot on the Tototl project page does look pleasantly simple, and I will definitely give this application a try.
Tototl is aimed to just that, it is very young, but it will implement all that sort of stuff very soon.
Scot:
I fully agree with you that the current work-around borders on useless.
The right thing to do, obviously, would be to fix the bug in AIR's Default Browser Knowledge Object ASAP, and make this kludge redundant. In any case, I find it very interesting that this bug slipped through the Adobe AIR QA, just because "it worked on Windows"...
Jochen, thanks for that - interesting. Not much help to the end user. Yes, TextMate is my default handler, but native apps such as Mail.app are still able to send links to the default browser, not to the default HTML handler (two very different things!)
If I'm understanding the problem right, I'm stuck not being able to fully use AIR apps until Adobe gets this straightened out.
Scot:
According to this tech note on the Adobe website, there is a bug in Adobe AIR, and you just have to read that tech note if only for the "interesting" comment on what causes this misbehavior.
What I assume is happening specifically in your case is that the programmers of those two Twitter clients have used the work-around described in the above-mentioned tech note, and that you have set TextMate as the default application for opening HTML files.
Both Toro and Spaz (AIR-based Twitter clients) send clicked links to TextMate, not to system preferred browser. This is happening on both my home and work machines. Can't see a way to fix. Suggestions?
Actually I'd also like it if it would hit up ping.fm instead of twitter. Or if twitter just added ping.fm level functionality.
leethal:
Have you seen this yet? ;)
Totally agreed. I'm still using twitter web. I want a sensible cocoa app that works just like the webapp, only that it shows @replies from people you don't follow and tracks read/unread items.
Christopher:
That's good news, indeed. Please drop me a note when you have working app that you consider "beta-worthy," and I'll gladly take a closer look at it.
Hey thanks for checking it out. I don't blame you on the Air thing. I'm getting pretty annoyed with memory leaks and other random, frustrating bugs that I've been running in to while developing Toro.
Good news though, I've started writing a native Mac and iPhone version because I'm just as sick of Air as you are.
Thanks for the offer, Christopher.
I'm afraid, though, that, in the meantime, I have completely given up on AIR. Still, the Toro screenshots look great and the icon is pretty darn cool. So, good luck with your Twitter client! May it find lots of users.
Although not native to OS X, Toro is a pretty simple on the eyes, and is much faster than other Twitter clients. Toro will update your timeline every 20 seconds. You should give it a try. http://www.gen-6.com/toro
It was just released as beta last week, but I promise you'll like it.
Thanks for your comments!
Sam:
When you've reached a verdict, let us know. ;)
sharon:
Twhirl's feature set really is nice and useful. Have you tested any other clients before you settled on Twhirl, though?
Fai:
I can see how using one application on multiple platforms makes sense. Same with, say, Firefox and Thunderbird.
And yet, although I don't mind applications slightly deviating from the standard Aqua look -- as is the case for these two Mozilla.org apps --, using software that looks almost completely alien and ignores fundamental guidelines like the order in which buttons are placed (default button in a window's lower right corner on a Mac) is not for me.
i use twhirl, since i twit at work (PC) and at home (Mac),
i don't have to use two clients since it is based on Air.
the UI thing is a bit awkward, but will get used to it after using for a while, and twhirl allows you to change the color scheme... and OSX's UI is no longer consistent anyway.
I prefer twirl. It seems to just work better for me and I like that it sits neatly in the background but ready when I want it.
I'm twittering since yesterday and I'm still searching for the right twitter client. I'm now using TwitterPod and it's nice. I'll test it for a few days.. :)