App: TweetCaster
Developer: One Louder Apps
Price: Free (or go Pro for $4.99)
It seems like there are a bajillion Twitter apps available in the Google Play store, especially with Twitter being the monster that it has become. The availability of several Twitter apps may make it difficult to chose the best one. In my experience, the best Twitter app is the one that personally suits you the best. Trust me, I’ve went through several Twitter apps until I landed on TweetCaster, and they all seem to have little quirks or bugs that I just could not get around. TweetCaster is different because the quirks that it does have are things I can live with. However, I always like to start with the good stuff! TweetCaster is a very clean app. Your timeline and menu options are easily noticable and pop out on your screen. The menu bar is not overloaded with stupid functions that nobody ever uses on Twitter like other apps. There’s a jump to top feature so you can skip through the older tweets to get to the fresh ones. TweetCaster also remembers your position in your timeline, so you can be sure you don’t miss out on any tweets. Similar to most Twitter apps, you have the ability to pull to refresh your timeline. You can customize your timeline with different colors and themes as well. A unique feature to TweetCaster is “My Stats.” This feature allows you to see who the top tweeters, most mentioned, and what the top trends are in your timeline. Click on the “My Tweets” tab on the same page and you will find whom you most mentioned, direct messaged, and favorites as well. It also shows you how often you tweet. The “Others” tab shows you who the big dogs on Twitter are, the most followed, all the verified accounts, and the people that have been on Twitter the longest. From your homepage, you can click on the interactions tab and see all of your conversations, retweets, and people that have just followed you. The more tab on the same page gives you the option to edit your profile (yes you can change your profile image) and view your blocked list. The free version does have ads, but they are slim and non intrusive, which I found as something that I can live with. The pro version, at $4.99, does not have any ads. There isn’t too much I can say that is negative about TweetCaster. The majority of the gripes I have are because I’m lazy when I go on Twitter. I would like to see TweetCaster implement a way to view pages within your timeline so you don’t have to click on a link and leave Twitter to read it. Other apps have this option, will TweetCaster soon get it? Also, the customization options are lacking when compared to other apps, such as Ubersocial. TweetCaster has bugs as well, just not as bad as other apps. Very rarely do I get a force close with TweetCaster, which is more than I can say for other apps I’ve used (ahem, Ubersocial). Overall, this is not the perfect Twitter app, but none of the available apps are. The clean interface and ease of use make this app great. Yes the app has bugs, but compared to other apps, they are not nearly as annoying; livable even. TweetCaster is a great Twitter app for both the casual and experienced user.
Look for me on Twitter @Blackmasks