Twitter for iPhone, perhaps my favorite Twitter app on iOS, has just received a healthy update that includes a number of new features and bug fixes. The first thing you’ll notice when you jump into your timeline is the trending topics bar. It’s a bit obtrusive and ugly, but if you’re big on trending topics, you’ll probably love it. Otherwise, you may just hate it. It refreshes every time your time-line is refreshed, and it’s a permanent fixture at the top of your main time-line. You can swipe the bar to see other topics, too, then you just press on it to go into the tweets for that particular topic.
Another new change you’ll notice is the composition screen. It’s a little cleaner and easier to use with the addition of the action bar above the keyboard. You’ll now be able to send @ reply messages, add hashtags, photos, videos and your location with just the touch of an icon. The neat part about the @ reply button is it will pull up your friends list, so you can simply click on one of your friends or begin typing their name to bring them up. It’s really convenient.
Finally, aside from the general bug fixes that Twitter for iPhone promises, you’ll also be able to find your friends on Twitter who are already contacts on your phone. When you click on the search button, you can scroll down to the bottom to find the “Find Friends” option in the menu. Just click on it and it will scan your contacts and it will show you a list of your friends and acquaintances who are on Twitter, but whom you aren’t following.
Overall, the app feels a bit cleaner and is less buggy in my brief experience, but we’ll have to see how stable it is over time. I just hope the DM bug is fixed, because there was nothing more annoying than being told I had unread messages when they were all read.