Twitter for Android: the best apps reviewed

You know what's awesome? Cookie dough ice cream. But when it comes to the smartphone market, the 18-month-old, steadily-growing Android platform is equally wondrous. Sure, Google may have a tiny bit of catching up to do when compared with Apple's market share, but at least Android users are already spoiled with a handful of good Twitter apps. Better yet, Twitter has now thrown in its official app to spice up the competition, so we thought it'd be interesting to put it head-to-head against the third-party clients. Read on to find out if we have a winner.

Let's start off with a quick introduction to each of the Twitter clients that we'll be comparing, but do bear with us while we give the newcomer a slightly longer rundown:

Twitter for Android

Knowing that the successful Tweetie 2 for iPhone is now under Twitter Inc.'s wing, we naturally had high hopes for Twitter's very own app for Android (2.1 and beyond, specifically). Sadly, it wasn't a good start -- every time the app launches, you're greeted by the menu (pictured above) instead of the timeline; alas, there's no option to pick the latter, but you can sort of solve this by launching from the widgets instead. We also find it slightly cumbersome to switch between the general feed, mentions and favorites timelines -- there are no permanent timeline tabs on the screen as offered by most other apps, so you'd have to tap on the top-left icon or go back to the menu for the other timelines.

Another complaint we have is the inconsistency of the retweet feature -- for some reason the retweet button's missing in the "By others" retweet timeline, mentions timeline, nearby tweets timeline or search results; the other apps have no such limitation. We're not exactly sure what the logic behind this is, but what's certain is that it's a nuisance and restricts our way of tweeting -- "retweet" was actually a format created by the Twitter community, after all. Hopefully we'll see a fix for this soon.

Leaving our retweet rant aside, there's one cool feature that we dig -- picture thumbnails in timelines. For now, only TwitPic and yfrog pictures can be previewed this way, but we won't be surprised if more supported sites are to come soon. Another nice and unique addition is the deep OS integration -- as pictured above, your contacts will be associated with their Twitter accounts by the power of green bot magic, plus you can have a glance at their latest tweets in your address book or messages app.

Twitter for Android

HootSuite

HootSuite's actually a cross-platform "professional Twitter client," covering the desktop, iPhone and Android spaces. The Android app -- released in early March -- is the only contestant in this shootout that lets you schedule tweets and track click stats on its "http://ow.ly/..." links, although the latter is only available in the full version ($2.99). It took us some time to become familiar with managing various "streams" -- for some reason we had to manually add our own timelines to begin with, but otherwise this is no doubt the best Android client for professional social media users. That said, it's rather strange that HootSuite doesn't let you create or edit lists, nor does it support geotagging or even offer any widgets.

HootSuite for Android review

Seesmic

Seesmic for Android -- released in November 2009 -- turned out to be the most popular choice in our quick Twitter survey, and we immediately fell in love with the intuitive interface. Compared to the official Twitter client, Seesmic packs more tools that makes life much easier, such as the permanent timeline tabs, font size picker, support for multiple accounts, and the plentiful options for media-upload services. Still, its inability to list out conversation threads does frustrate us from time to time.

Seesmic Twitter client for Android

Swift

Swift touts itself as the most lightweight Twitter client for Android, as evidently shown in the feature charts later on. While we appreciate this app's efficiency, we feel that a lot of the crucial interface elements are missing, namely remembering the timeline position and replying to all mentions. Also, switching from one timeline to another can be a nuisance due to the lack of permanent tabs -- here you have to tap on the blue bar for the options. Don't expect an update any time soon, either -- turns out Swift's developer is also the guy behind HootSuite's Android app, and he's been under HootSuite's roof since mid-March.

Swift Twitter client for Android

Touiteur

Touiteur came out around mid-February this year and it's been highly recommended by many. Not only does this app have the useful permanent tabs at the bottom, but you can also easily make a tweet by pulling down the composer from the top. Other cool features include color tagging and viewing other people's subscribed timelines (yes, one for the stalkers, perhaps). If you want multiple accounts and URL-shortening service, just dole out €1.99 ($2.53) for the premium version.

Touiteur Twitter client for Android

TweetCaster

TweetCaster's only been around since the end of January this year, but it packs the most extras out of the test group. Sure, it may be a bit weak with map integration, but it's hard to hate this app with cool features like free themes and shake to refresh. The only real complaint we have is that TweetCaster charges $4.99 for just removing the ad banner.

TweetCaster Twitter client for Android

Twicca

Twicca is a fairly new client that's quickly gaining popularity, despite being in beta stage (we had version 0.7.8). As you can see, it features a dark, clean but also easy-to-use interface, while packing many handy tools such as inserting a custom geotag (as opposed to one forced by the GPS), color-tagging people, plus a good handful of settings to suit your needs.

Twicca Twitter client for Android

Twidroid

Last but not least, Twidroid was also one of the most popular Twitter clients in our survey. This old boy's been around since late October 2008, and users remain loyal probably due to its clean and intuitive interface. As you'll see later on, Twidroid's also the most fully featured client out there, with a bunch of locked extras -- including six themes -- just €3.39 ($4.32) away.

Twidroid Twitter client for Android

Round one: Viewing

		Twitter	HootSuite	Seesmic	Swift	Touiteur	TweetCaster	Twicca	Twidroid
Load timeline at launch		No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Remember timeline position		No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
View geotagged tweets on map		Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
View nearby tweets		Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
View nearby tweets on map		No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
View lists		Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Enlarge profile pictures		No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
View conversation threads		No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Change font size		No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Picture thumbnails in timelines		Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
		Twitter	HootSuite	Seesmic	Swift	Touiteur	TweetCaster	Twicca	Twidroid

In the first round of this shootout, it's clear that Twidroid offers the best Twitter browsing experience, closely followed by Twicca and TweetCaster. Most of the rest fell behind with their lack of support for geotagged tweets -- to view on map or to scan for nearby tweets, leaving just the official Twitter app and Twidroid happily covering both features. On the contrary, Twitter's own client is one of the few apps that miss out on handy tools like font size picker, automatic timeline bookmarker, and conversation thread viewer.

Round two: Composing

		Twitter	HootSuite	Seesmic	Swift	Touiteur	TweetCaster	Twicca	Twidroid
Insert location in tweet		Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Old / new retweet options		New	Old	Both	Old	Both	Both	Both	Both
Reply to all mentions		No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Look up user names while composing		Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Upload photos / videos		Photos	Photos	Both	Both	Photos	Photos	Both	Both
Photo upload service options		2	1	4	4	2	2	1	5
Video upload service options		No	No	3	2	No	No	1	Premium
URL-shortening service options		2	1	3	1	Premium	2	1	3
		Twitter	HootSuite	Seesmic	Swift	Touiteur	TweetCaster	Twicca	Twidroid

Again, Twidroid comes out as the clear winner in the composing category, with Twicca trailing slightly behind due to the missing options for media-upload and URL-shortening services. Seesmic could've easily won the champion title here had there not been that single red cross -- like HootSuite and Swift, it doesn't let you look up user names while composing. The official Twitter app looks about average in this round, mainly due to its inability to let us reply to all mentions with one click, plus the lack of video upload tool just didn't make sense for this newcomer.

Final round: Extras

		Twitter	HootSuite	Seesmic	Swift	Touiteur	TweetCaster	Twicca	Twidroid
Multiple accounts		No	Yes	Yes	No	Premium	Yes	No	Premium
Schedule tweets		No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Monitor link click stats		No	Premium	No	No	No	No	No	No
Create and edit lists		Yes	No	Delete only	No	No	Yes	Yes	Premium
Edit profile		Yes	No	No	No	Picture	Yes	Yes	Yes
Block / report		Both	Block	Block	No	Block	Both	Both	Block
Color tagging		No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Themes		No	No	No	No	Premium (2)	Yes (2)	No	Premium (6)
Widgets		2	No	1	1	Premium	2	1	Premium
Android share integration		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Background notification		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
		Twitter	HootSuite	Seesmic	Swift	Touiteur	TweetCaster	Twicca	Twidroid

As you can see in this final round, most of the third-party apps here don't fare as well as the official Twitter app when it comes to list management, profile editing and widgets. On the other hand, Twitter's app could do with support for multiple accounts to catch up with this round's winner -- TweetCaster. Technically, Twidroid's equally as good as TweetCaster in this round, provided that you don't mind paying €3.39 ($4.32) for the pro version; otherwise you'd just have to bear with TweetCaster's ad banners, or pay $4.99 for the ad-free version -- it's nice to support the developers, you know? While we're here, it's also worth pointing out that HootSuite's the only client that offers tweet scheduling and link click metrics (premium), whereas Touiteur and Twicca are the only ones that let you color-tag tweets from selected people.

Wrap-up

Twitter's first attempt with its own mobile app isn't a bad one -- it's certainly one of the prettiest choices in the market right now, but at the end of the day, for us Twidroid easily took the crown as the best Android Twitter app, with TweetCaster as the runner-up and Twicca in third place. That said, the official app is still the only candidate that offers deep integration within the OS (like the aforementioned contacts linking). If Twitter wants to play catch-up, all we ask for is for its app to remember timeline position, show conversation threads, allow replying to all mentions, and support video upload. Better still, Twitter should consider letting its users view nearby tweets on a map -- we can already do this on Tweetie 2 (soon to be the official iPhone Twitter app), so why not make this a first on Android as well? It'll be super useful for users to find out about regional events, regardless of radial distance. Until these ideas are implemented on the official app, third-party Android developers can safely stay in the Twitter game.

[liquidmonkey Posted May 6th 2010 4:19PM]

i sooooooo don't get twitter.


from sweden

[who said what Posted May 6th 2010 4:23PM]

@liquidmonkey

Try a different location.

[Air Force One Posted May 6th 2010 4:24PM]

@liquidmonkey

I didn't either until I realized you can use it as a feed. I never actually make any tweets, I just folllow people/places like Engadget, Android central, Skyfire, Crackberry.com...some ESPN journos so I can keep up with breaking sports news.

There really is more to Twitter than mindless posts and comments.

Your feed is only as good as you make it.

[Natal Posted May 6th 2010 4:28PM]

is this so people can feel important reading their "twitter" feed? congrats on being unproductive and owning an android phone, 3% marketshare, no worthwhile apps.

[Natal Posted May 6th 2010 4:29PM]

@liquidmonkey

and are you guys going to get a new phone? the nexus one is unbelievably ugly. 2 tone gray and a trackball? lmao

[Cicatrize Posted May 6th 2010 4:35PM]

@Air Force One Exactly. Making tweets is cool if you're 13 years old and want everyone to know everything you do. The only great thing about Twitter is its use as a news feed that's better than RSS.

[Air Force One Posted May 6th 2010 4:43PM]

@Cicatrize

The cool part is the notifications, imo. If one sets up their twitter feed correctly, every notification brings knowledge that you are about to learn something new or find out some breaking news, etc..:)

[gargle Posted May 6th 2010 4:43PM]

@Natal I was going to describe my Nexus One and it's teflon coating and super thing metal body, but then I just downranked you..

[gargle Posted May 6th 2010 4:44PM]

@gargle *thin... great, now you can downrank me too.

[jetblast7 Posted May 6th 2010 4:47PM]

@Natal and you have what an iPhone? I got rid of mine and am glad to be done with it.

[kapanak Posted May 6th 2010 4:50PM]

@Cicatrize

Actually, many polls and opinions show that teenagers BARELY use twitter...most of them stick with Facebook, which can do twitter's job, and much more...for them.

I only use twitter to read other's tweets, and barely tweet myself...

[asdewqf22 Posted May 6th 2010 4:57PM]

@Air Force One
"The cool part is the notifications, imo. If one sets up their twitter feed correctly, every notification brings knowledge that you are about to learn something new or find out some breaking news, etc..:)"

http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/283628430_FxJSk-L-2.jpg

[David Bailey Posted May 6th 2010 4:59PM]

@liquidmonkey
Dear Engadget,
You aren't always right, and like most American websites you have an unhealthy lust for Apple products. That said, you actually give other stuff a fair chance, and like this article, you actively endorse the idea that Apple aren't ruling the world forever, and they aren't the only choice. Gizmodo just published 2 articles that completely misread a couple of random graphs to make the false claim that netbooks are dead. I applaud you for not stooping to their crappy level.
Lots of love,
Intelligent readers.

[viper24 Posted May 6th 2010 5:11PM]

I want to know why engadget still gets a Mini 5 and we dont! Meeeeehhhh!!!!!

[SParklingCYaNide Posted May 6th 2010 5:18PM]

@Air Force One I agree with you as well, I only really use it mostly as a News Feed from companies and in that respect its a fantastic tool for information.

[andreb Posted May 6th 2010 5:26PM]

@who said what
that's also the suggestion for Nexus One owners who can't find a strong signal

[pdiddy Posted May 6th 2010 8:16PM]

@Cicatrize said "Making tweets is cool if you're 13 years old and want everyone to know everything you do. The only great thing about Twitter is its use as a news feed that's better than RSS"

Wrong. In 2007 I used it to tweet where I was when taking pictures on my trip around Europe and later synced up the time stamps on my pictures with where they were taken. We didn't always have GPS on our phones. :-P

Just because YOU can't see a use for it doesn't mean it has none.

[Tony Montana Posted May 6th 2010 10:09PM]

@liquidmonkey

Twitter: self promoted online stalking

Average Twitter user use it for 2 months..........LOL

[normanb20 Posted May 7th 2010 1:01AM]

@kapanak
You shouldn't tweet yourself, you'll go blind

[liquidmonkey Posted May 7th 2010 3:29AM]

@Air Force One

sorry, but twitter does nothing that facebook doesn't do already.
i get if you have one account or the other but having both seems like overkill and a weird need to let everyone know what your doing EVERY few hours.

as far as a news feed??? check the tech sites or regular news.

[The Albatross Posted May 7th 2010 9:50AM]

@liquidmonkey Nay.
While the other posts have already made the case about a solid news feed, the reasons for having Facebook and Twitter are still there. On Facebook, I am friends with -- seemingly -- everybody that I know or have known or will meet... 700 or 800 some people. There is this 'social obligation' to become friends with people who you're not even really friends with: my aunts, co-workers who I Don't really like, old friends from high school, and so on. If I post something to Facebook, it is read by those 700 people and it is more or less forced on them.

Twitter, on the other hand, somebody simply won't follow me unless they _want_ to, and most of my followers are people who would like to see what I have to say, as opposed to Facebook, which seeing what somebody has to say is more or less a crutch forced on "Friends" by keeping loose affiliations with them.

Finally, updating Twitter ~8 - 12 times a day with "useful" links, images, funny things, new articles, thoughts, and so on, is acceptable. It's a running feed. If you update Facebook 10 times a day ....... you're _that_ guy.

[Air Force One Posted May 6th 2010 4:20PM]

I still prefer Seesmic

[brrip Posted May 6th 2010 4:33PM]

@Air Force One Gravity > everything else

[Mr Blue Posted May 6th 2010 5:29PM]

@Air Force One

I still prefer.. oh hell, who am I kidding. I just posted here so my comment wouldn't be buried at the bottom.

Just wanted to thank Engadget for a very thorough review of all these Android Twitter clients! I have honestly been waiting months for a comparison/breakdown to visually see the difference, and Engadget hath delivered! So.. Thanks Again :)

(PS. I prefer Twicca. It loads fast, and is very easy to use.)

[mercnet Posted May 7th 2010 6:08PM]

@Air Force One I agree, I tried all the other alternatives and fell in love with seesmic.

[shoxite Posted May 6th 2010 4:20PM]

Tweetie 2 FTW!

[MEH Posted May 6th 2010 4:21PM]

I hate twitter

[paulus Posted May 6th 2010 4:35PM]

@MEH
I'm sure it hates you too.

[spicyjapp Posted May 6th 2010 6:57PM]

@paulus I Agree with you

[Karate Tortoise Posted May 6th 2010 7:11PM]

@MEH I'm sorry you wasted your time here. You could have gone "oh a post about twitter - ignore" but you took the high road by expressing your concern on such a site. well done

[Natal Posted May 6th 2010 10:14PM]

@Karate Tortoise

hes right though twitter is garbage

[jupigare Posted May 8th 2010 5:52AM]

@Natal
I don't know about you, but twitter helped me get free tickets to Avenue Q as well as access to the after party. It's not some cancer-curing unicorn or anything, but if it got me to meet the cast and crew, it's not completely worthless. You just have to know who to follow and how to contribute.

[thebuilder Posted May 6th 2010 4:21PM]

Need to add this verbage to the article: "Twitter is worse than Myspace, hope this helps."

[pedmart Posted May 6th 2010 4:23PM]

i like Peep for HTC hero

[IronLantern Posted May 6th 2010 4:24PM]

Has Android been around for only for 18 months. Seems a lot longer...

[capnbob66 Posted May 6th 2010 5:13PM]

@IronLantern It has. It's been around fr years, was a poor WinMo clone, got bought by Google, then iPhone came, showed them how it's done and finally there was some hardware HTC G1 that could run it 18 months ago. android isn't some new kid. It's been skulking around for ages.

[Nickedynick Posted May 6th 2010 4:24PM]

So no one thought to review HTC Peep? I'm getting a Desire tomorrow, and the choice I have is between keeping Peep and abandoning Twidroid, or vice versa.

[reuvenb Posted May 6th 2010 4:37PM]

@Nickedynick
If it helps, Peep is basically just HTC's skin for Twidroid.

[OCJP Posted May 7th 2010 12:59AM]

@Nickedynick HTC Peep is only available for HTC Sense UI phones... Why do you hate people with DROIDS and Backflips?

[Reisa Posted May 7th 2010 2:34AM]

@Nickedynick

Friendstream is pretty good too. It lets you post to Twitter and Facebook with only one entry, and shows your T & F stream in one flickable widget. That's all I really want. Only for SenseUI, though.

[Nickedynick Posted May 7th 2010 3:06AM]

@OCJP I don't! I've got a G1 at the moment (obviously Google experience rather than Sense), but a large amount of popular Android phones have Sense on them. That's in the UK at least, maybe they're in the minority over there.

[DoctarPeppar Posted May 6th 2010 4:25PM]

What is that device with the big ass screen?
Is that the dell Mid?

[Richard Lai Posted May 6th 2010 4:27PM]

@DoctarPeppar Yes, the Dell Streak.

[DoctarPeppar Posted May 6th 2010 4:33PM]

@Richard Lai
Damn you guys get all the cool stuff!

[hdawggy Posted May 6th 2010 4:26PM]

Pointless apps... ahhhhh

[ibransond Posted May 6th 2010 7:00PM]

@hdawggy Why do you call them pointless?

[Physicsguy89 Posted May 6th 2010 4:27PM]

Woah we need a review of that Dell Mini!

[Richard Lai Posted May 6th 2010 4:28PM]

@Physicsguy89 We've already reviewed it (but the software's not final, obviously)! http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/19/dell-mini-5-prototype-impressions/

[Physicsguy89 Posted May 6th 2010 4:31PM]

@Richard Lai

Oh man :( I was hoping the one in this post was a newer version with newer Android or something.

And believe me, I've read that prototype review many times.

[electron Posted May 6th 2010 4:27PM]

offtopic: Looking at all those android phones in one place just makes me wanna cry :(