Not long ago, RIM kicked off a closed beta for their official BlackBerry Twitter client to a mixed reception. At Mobile World Congress, RIM was giving away beta codes like candy, but shortly after the initial launch, we peppered some of our @IntoMobile followers with a couple of codes we had been provided, and asked them to give us some of their impressions. I had my own thoughts on the app, and there’s some solid consensus about stuff like lists and multiple account support, but each of these four guys bring up a few different and distinct points. Overall, it sounds like people are happy with the client, with only a few gaps that need plugging. Hit the jump to get reading!
After using the BlackBerry Twitter app for the past couple of days, I’ve had a mixed experience. It is much easier to set up than other apps on the market currently, and the interface has been very pleasant to look at and use. I really liked how they have simplified direct messages and replies to separate boxes and shortcuts on the navigation menu. The best feature for me is the ways that you can search in this app. Where other apps before have made it slightly difficult to find things you were looking for, this one allows you to find tweets, hashtags, and keywords in several different ways, such as by location, through the “Popular Topics” menu or the “Search” menu.
The only real gripes I had about the app were mostly in the settings. I like seeing my direct messages and @ replies in my BlackBerry’s Messages inbox, but I really didn’t care for it letting me know when people have posted new tweets – luckily, it’s an optional feature, but it should be turned off by default. I like to just see the little Twitter notification in the top of my phone when it comes to new tweets. Having it in the message inbox makes me think there will be an email waiting for me when i get there. If there was more personalization of your alerts and the ability to edit your profile settings directly from the app, I would probably never use the twitter web app again.
All in all, this app rates a 9 out of 10 for BlackBerry’s first shot at a Twitter app and I will be using this as it is the most functional option for me.
The new Twitter client from RIM was released February 11th to beta testers that had invitation codes. I was fortunate to win an invite code through IntoMobile.com and have been using it for 99% of my BlackBerry posts, and even more than all the other platforms I use (iPhone and webOS).
My first impression (prior to downloading) was that I was going to be able to drop SocialScope and not miss anything. My second impression (right after downloading and quickly playing with the client) was that I would miss being able to update Twitter and Facebook at the same time. For some strange reason, to me at least, it resembled the Facebook client from RIM. (As it turns out, you can send any Twitter updates, your own included, to Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, PIN, SMS, MMS, and BBM contacts or groups through the Send To menu item. -ed.)
After playing with the client for a couple days, I realized this wasn’t a be-all-end-all client (nor do I believe RIM was even going for that), but very functional nonetheless. One feature I noticed and really liked while going through emails was the ability to update Twitter while in the mail app (as well as the SMS/MMS app) without ever leaving the application. You can even send direct messages in which the app starts showing possible names as you start typing the user’s name. It would be nice if the client suggested names for regular updates as well.
My conclusion… This app is very good for light twitter users, twitter newbies & simple twitter function wanting people (like me). Bells and whistles are great, but I barely use them, so it’s not an important factor to me – hence the reason why I really like this client. Another reason I see this app doing well is because it’s free, user friendly and for some people, they would rather RIM hold their account information than many sources. It would be a lot easier to hack into a 3rd party’s database than it would be with RIM. I would give this a 4.5/5 stars. I didn’t have crazy hopes for this client and it definitely delivered what I would have expected from RIM.
Things I liked:
- Being able to update in the messaging app without exiting
- Simple and to the point… a newbie could figure it out
- Uses the web version of retweeting that Twitter uses
- Pretty fast UI on 9700 (others reporting it being slow)
- Replies aren’t cached, so when you click the replies tab, it refreshes
- Ability to show DMs in messages
Things I disliked:
- Found it real hard to hit “Add Photo” button… I have to go left in pad when highlighting update
- No ability to have two accounts running simultaneously
- No integration with the address book like the Facebook app