Twitter For Mac: First & Lasting Impressions

Upon receiving the brand-new App Store for Mac via Apple’s software update feature, I decided I needed to download something to get the full experience.  Not really wanting to take the time to find a solution to a problem I didn’t have, I decided I needed a new Twitter client (to replace Twhirl, which I have been happily using for a couple of years).  Seeing the Twitter app, I decided that it might be nice to try something “official,” as the Twitter app for Android is quite nice.

My first impressions of what was formerly Tweetie were pretty standard.  The UI is very straightforward and simple- having a panel on the side for tweets, @replies, direct messages, lists, your user profile and search. Underneath those is a spot for more usernames (I use @canellavision to tweet for my dad’s business in addition to @andrewcanella) which, when clicked on, reveals its own set of respective categories (tweets, @replies etc). The right side is for viewing actual information output.

Pros

1. Image links open the photo within the application- no need to fire up a browser (though I always have my browser open)
2. Yfrog is the default image service
3. Ability to assign a global “Tweet key” which pulls up a tweet window when Twitter is not the active window (like command+shift+t or the like)
4. Automatically scroll to top feature (keeps things clean and up to date)
5. Support for multiple accounts

Cons

1. To tweet, the user needs to pull up a new “tweet window” whenever sending out a tweet rather than having a text box ready at all times (at least give users a one click method in addition to the keyboard shortcut of Command-N)
2. After typing a tweet you must click “Tweet” instead of simply hitting ENTER
3. No URL shortener (how they forgot to add this feature is beyond me)
   *Disregard Above- Twitter automatically shortens URL’s when tweeted.  Can’t believe I missed this!  Very cool feature.  Thanks Steve!
4. No ability to make the app translucent when not an active window like in Twhril (minor gripe- this may be limited to Twhirl and a couple others)
5. No “Title Bar” or convenient horizontal space that can be clicked on to move the application on your desktop (“pulling” the app does not work when clicking and dragging on individual tweets, so sometimes its difficult to position the app.  It lacks agility.).

Though this is only my first day using the Twitter app (I mainly tweet from my phone), it has a pretty good overall UI for a 2.0.  I expect refinements in the near future, but I pledge to stick with this at least until the end of the week to see if I’ll keep it.  I have a feeling I will.

Update:  The “tweet anywhere” feature (maybe the coolest built-in perk) was revealed to me by a recent TechCrunch article.