It might be all doom and gloom for popular third-party Twitter clients, but at least the official app is getting some love. Twitter's own Android app has been updated to version 3.8 today, with a trio of new features alongside the usual big fixes. First up there's a new "top tweets" feature, which is supposed to make significant tweets from the past pop up when searching for specific topics. (We tried searching for "Election 2012" and "Olympics" to no avail, but Twitter had plenty of tweets to highlight when searching for "grumpy cat," including news of the disgruntled feline's upcoming appearance at SXSW.)
Other additions include the ability to see all replies to tweets in details view, and smoother animations for pull-to-refresh in the "Discover" tab.
Has the recent drama over user tokens for third-party apps got you back on the official Twitter client? Let us know what you think of this update down in the comments! If you're giving it a try for the first time, check the handy Google Play link above.
Reader comments
Official Twitter app updated with new 'top tweets' feature, smoother animations
Still terrible.
I REFUSE to even try this app again in PROTEST for the great third party apps they are trying to lock out of their system.
I'll be honest, I am currently using the official app because I don't want to wake up one morning and see that my app is no longer supported. I don't *LIKE* that I'm using it for that reason.
But the app still sucks. It's bad. No inline previews, no easy way to set notifications, and the app seems clunky at best.
Dear Twitter, if you're going to piss off every single Android user, please make your app not suck. Please implement at least MOST of the popular features from your (superior) competitors.
It really is a shame that Twitter is doing everything in its power to hinder third party development. Apps like Carbon and Falcon not only look cleaner and better, but also feature a plethora of features not available to the official app. I can't, for the life of me, understand this self-imposed token limit. Why wouldn't you want third party applications that enhance the Twitter experience? So long as you are using their service, it shouldn't really matter by what means you access it through. Like you, though, I'm almost scared to use a third party client, as I don't want to wake up one morning to an article about how the disheartened developer simply refuses to develop or update his or her Twitter client because of the aforementioned limits. It just sucks. We're being essentially forced to use an app for all the wrong reasons.
"Dear Twitter, if you're going to piss off every single Android user, please make your app not suck. Please implement at least MOST of the popular features from your (superior) competitors."
"Superior" in that they're slowing being phased out from a more superior, yet incredibly dumb, business/marketing decision.
Maybe Twitter will wake up one day and find 90% of their user base gone when they ban all the 3rd party apps and then they are screwed. I want to know which dummy makes their business decisions, because he is going to drive them to the grave. Whomever is next in line will succeed beyond all expectations regardless of which company it is, if it will do similar stuff.
still a shitty, ugly app, with no tablet UI. Thanks for the shitty API restrictions, Twitter. I would rather read your sponsored tweets in a well-designed 3rd party app than use twitter at all.
Still wastes a TON of space on the screen.
I use the official Twitter application and it suits me just fine.
Me too.
WOW!!! Just what everyone was asking for!!! Twitter must be run by a bunch of idiots, I swear.
I just want the option to swipe between "Home" "Connect" "Discover" and "Me"...true holo style (among many other UI changes that are needed). Anyone else?
Making the move to app.net in a day
I've already deleted my Twitter account in protest of their treatment of third party developers, but even if I hadn't, I wouldn't use this rubbish.
I use Twitter nowhere but Falcon Pro. Which means it's a bye-bye to the network when this app (or other decent third-party ones) die.
Same here. I'm still with twitter only because I can still use Falcon Pro with it. When and if that changes, I will be saying "goodbye" to twitter for good.
Oh what a surprised, a ton of people complaining because they like whatever the main people running this website like.
I use the Twitter app. And guess what guys, my phone has an AMOLED display, doesn't run stock
android and I think nav bars are stupid. F me for having an opinion, right?
But none of the ever open to the newest Tweet.
It always opens to somewhere way down the screen and I have to scroll to the top every time I open it ... what a pain!
is there anyway to see the public timeline? (the one where it shows every tweet from everybody even people you dont follow)
I've just completely left Twitter. I used to be a big fan of TweetDeck, until Twitter bought it and killed it off. That got me away from using Twitter very often. The Twitter app sucks, and always has. And I can't bring myself to get really invested in any other 3rd party app for the same reasons listed by other users: I know eventually Twitter is going to kill them off completely.
Well done, Twitter. I'm not sure what your game plan is but, assuming it's to discourage people from using your service, you're succeeding.