Review: TweetMe for webOS 46
Sure, the Android Market may have gotten a well-reviewed, official Twitter client from Twitter themselves last week, but the highly anticipated TweetMe for webOS finally graced the App Catalog with its presence, bringing a strong and highly anticipated entrant into the space selling for the introductory price of $1.50. There’s no question that it’s a beautifully laid out application, but does it have what it takes to move us from the twitter apps we already use? Read on to find out.
TweetMe is hands-down one of the best looking apps in the App Catalog, and the attention to detail throughout the app is something that all developers should strive for. Tweets are presented in a format that looks something like a mix of the native webOS messaging client and those found in the Android and iPhone operating systems, presenting between 3 to 4 easily readable tweets on-screen in blue conversation bubbles that come from the left hand of the screen, with tweets you send showing up as a green dialog bubble from the right side. The color scheme and excellent font choices make everything very readable and easily discernable on a level that only Tweed has so far really exceeded at.
Navigation is another area where TweetMe gets a lot right. A quasi-persistent icon in the lower right-hand corner of the screen brings up a 4 x 3 grid of icons (which is also activated by performing the back gesture in any of the main screens), allowing you to jump to any area of the program, such as search, mentions and nearby. This is analogous to Tweed’s implementation with the drop-down menu, but I actually prefer the easily recognizable grid of icons found here in favor of the scrollable list. Other nice touches include in-line image previews when you tap on a tweet, the auto saving of unfinished tweets when you close a card mid-composition, and great UI flourishes, including nifty animations, throughout.
There are a few places, however, where I found TweetMe to fall a little short. I do wish that they’d employ a way to quickly jump to the top or bottom of a list, and doubly so because the refresh button lives at the top the list of tweets in lieu of a persistent (and preferable) floating button that resides near the bottom of the screen.
I’d also like to see the quasi-persistent navigation launcher stick around in *all* of the scenes throughout the app, as I’m not a huge fan of having to drill out of several levels of hierarchy to get back to the navigation controls. One other thing is that unlike most of the other Twitter apps in the Catalog that present you with a list of options such as “re-tweet” and “delete” when you tap on a tweet in the main list view, you cannot perform actions from the main list view in TweetMe – you have to go to another scene entirely to perform those most basic of actions.
Notification options are standard fare here; 5 minutes is the shortest polling interval, with times going all the way up to 3 hours, and you can set the program to notify you on the mentions, messages, and home timelines. Other configuration options allow you to set how many tweets are loaded on screen at once and allow you to set your display name.
TweetMe is certainly one of the most cohesive twitter apps in the Catalog in terms of visuals and navigation, but there are two things that keep me from wanting to dump Tweed as my de facto Twitter client. The first is Performance: Not only is the program itself often sluggish when scrolling through lists or navigating to different parts of the app, but it seems that it slows down the entire operating system while open, an effect that seems to get worse the longer the program is open. The second reason has to do with the fundamental inefficiency in navigation the program offers in comparison to Tweed.
With all things considered, though, you Twee users out there will find a significant upgrade in TweetMe across the board with superior styling and navigational components throughout. Tweed users, on the other hand, won’t find much in the way of an upgrade in terms of navigation and will certainly see a downgrade in terms of snappiness and may want to hold off until those performance issues are resolved. There’s no question though that TweetMe shows a tremendous amount of potential, and for the very cheap $1.50 asking price the program is an easy sell, as many of the previously mentioned issues will more than likely begin to disappear as time goes on. And when they do, webOS users will have one of the better Twitter apps available to any platform.
46 Comments
Great!!! I'm downloading this baby!
I have a tendancy to be incredibly stingy in my app purchases. Which is ironic because I don't really hesitate to go buy a soda when I'm thirsty and a lot of apps cost less than that. That was the logic that I used when purchasing TweetMe. $1.50 is about the cost of a 20oz soda, and I get to keep it longer.
That said, I'm a bit disappointed by how it feels slow compared to my favorite twitter app: Twee. As I understand it, Bad Kitty is even faster.
But what a pretty interface.
lol, I never even thought about it that way. I easily spend $1.50 for a vitamin water, but mull over a $1.99 app for a couple days before deciding to download it.
Its probably because that soda will bring you guaranteed satisfaction, whereas an app can easily be the most dissapointing thing you've ever used. Some of the apps can be a waste of money AND time.
As a fellow developer, I was blown away by this App. It raised the bar for me! Did I also mention that I'm jealous?
Love this app, though it does lag at times. I'd love it to support landscape orientation, especially for pictures. Very pretty app, for lack of a better term.
So I use Twee (and like it just fine), but based on this review if I was going to make a change it sounds like I should move to Tweed instead of "upgrading" to TweetMe. I'm not really following that recommendation.
Possibly because Twee was the leader of great looking UI, until dethroned by TweetMe.
I purchased Twee, Spaz, Tweed, and now TweetMe. After all the Tweets about TweetMe prior to release, I'm one that doesn't really get it. The most beautiful app, by far, but I go for functionality first. Tweed still wins for me.
I downloaded it a week ago but continue to use Tweed until refreshing the home timeline results in starting with the oldest tweet first.
It is pretty annoying when refreshing after a long time for it to jump straight to the newest tweet. there is often several 'layers/RT" that occur and it would be nice the read in chronological order.
Otherwise it is a great first release.
You put this is the context I needed, thank you. Unfortunately for TweetMe, that means I won't be buying it. Tweed is still my pony.
I overwhelmingly prefer utilitarian designs for two reasons: 1) I find it insulting when applications try to entertan me with UI navigation and, 2) "nifty animations" almost always come at the cost of performance, and at a minimum, take longer to animate than if the element were just to appear and disappear.
I purchased TweetMe to test and came to the same conclusion. I assumed the display of tweets would be reduced, but they are not. This is due to displaying less data.
To me, the thing Tweed does that is better than all others is the quick pop up menu. While it is a little borked in the current implementation of Meta-tap copy (which they said they are addressing), I process tweets faster in Tweed than anything else.
A Marker is a must for me. I open up Tweed, process my Tweets, Mark position and close. Then I open next time I want to view tweets. I don't need to know about them in real time. It isn't that important. Just as I process email in batches.
Im currently using Twee and think that it is one of the best looking apps in the catalog, beating TweetMe hands down. I really dont care for the "iphone style" chat bubbles. To me, if you're making an app for one OS, borrowing styles from another OS just seems sloppy.
If I did need to switch to another client, I wouldnt be picking this one up.
You summed it up perfectly. I will be sticking with Twee for the same reason.
The lack of colour choice for tweets is annoying, who the heck wants to see their own tweets in that garish, pukey green? It's all a bit loud and cheap looking in my view.
The GUI is really neat. I've been using TweetMe until I realised how fast it drained the battery. From my experience way faster than Tweed :/ And it really feels a bit sluggish.
But I will give it another try when it gets an update, it just looks way to good :)
Where is the lite version ?
Dude it's a dollar fifty. Live dangerously.
There's an undocumented feature: If you use a forward swipe, it takes you all the way back to the home screen (so you don't have to pop down the whole stack).
I would argue that navigation in TweetMe really isn't that bad. Just because it pops up a new scene doesn't mean it's slower. I'd say it takes almost the same amount of time for Tweed to load the submenu popup as it does to push a new scene. I really wish you could click on links from the home screen though.
Graphics are beautiful (a good UI makes a HUGE difference), and it even has some features that seem better than Tweed. I agree 100% on the performance issues though -- those need to be fixed.
I like the ability to click on links in the timeline also, but before I found the option to turn them off in Tweed I found myself accidentally clicking links while scrolling. If there's not a way to solve that issue, then I prefer clicking the link from a submenu or "opening" the tweet.
Does the "nearby" function seem to work for anyone? I'm on Sprint/Pre... I just get "No Tweets", but don't see a way to set any of the GPS/location parameters.
I get hardly anything myself. The developer has a small radius for searching and you currently cannot change it.
I received a reply (via tweet) from the developer and he said:
"there is a bug in nearby that has been fixed. It'll work in the next update."
I'm pretty much equally in love with Twee and TweetMe, both upgrades over the Tweed experience imo, so I trust this review as much as the others: not at all. The more I use it, the more I do appreciate some things about Twe over TweetMe, not the least of which is superior notifications, speed, nearby results and a timeline marker. Seriously, do you even use these apps long before the review? I keep TweetMe because of its novelty UI (and the ligt theme in the full version of Twee is about on par) and the launcher like navigation, and I am very interested in seeing how updates improve the UI and user experience, but I'm still a huge Twee fan.
I asked the developer about the ability to jump back to the main screen instead of using several back gestures and was informed that a forward gesture accomplishes this! I love the potential of this app, although I also noticed the performance issues immediately. As such, I'm currently in a state of twitter-app-limbo. I'm currently switching back and forth between these three: Twee is my favorite, but it is buggy; TweetMe is also nice, but needs some updates; Tweed is solid and clean, but boring (I hate being shallow).
I love the look of this and definitely want to use it more.
3 minor suggestions (not complaints since this is an early version)
1. Multiple account handling (they say it's coming)
2. A manual refresh button on the main timeline screen
3. Reply all option (the thing I miss most from Ubertwitter)
3 I can live without for a bit, but until 1 and 2 get in there I'll keep using Twee
2. It's at the top of the main timeline.
In order to manual refresh, all you have to do is hit the menu on the bottom right and choose Home. Your tweets will refresh without having to scroll all the way to the top.
This is weird, I keep seeing posts about the slow down issue and even slowing down the whole phone.
I'm not seeing that at all. TweetMe is much faster then Tweed (my primary client before) and I'm not seeing any slowdowns in the app or my phone.
I really do feel that TweetMe is faster then Tweed, where I used to get a lot of slowdowns in Tweed just opening up a normal menu.
I'm on the Palm Pre Plus, just for reference.
Most of the things mentioned in the comments here are being implemented in the next upgrade, especially the small sluggishness. I am beta testing for the developer, who is one of the most responsive devs out there. For a 1.1 app, this is waaaay better than a lot of apps released for months.
Expect a MAJOR upgrade soon
Get it now, the price will go up soon....
I have an idea! I really like the chat bubbles and the way it looks... Someone should make a patch or app that would make the pre's messaging look like TweetMe!!
Am I the only one who doesn't find the Apple bubble look attractive...?
I set this up to be my primary twitter client for a few days this week. There is a lot to like (especially on the UI side), but it's just not there yet. I'm one of those who noticed the sluggishness, and it did seem to increase over time. I don't have multiple accounts to manage, but I can appreciate why people miss it. I wish the notifications could distinguish which timeline has updates. The lack of a timeline marker kinda kills it for me.
That said, it's not like I really miss that $1.50. TweetMe definitely has potential, and it's sticking around in case Pivotal Labs lets a webOS update break Tweed for a couple weeks (not that THAT ever happens...).
I love this app, it's beautiful. It pulled me away from a much more full featured app on my iPod (Tweet Deck) because it is just a joy to use. It makes Twitter feel fun and social, rather than just a mini newsfeed like I've been using it. It really has changed how I look at Twitter. It makes me want to use Twitter more. And it lets me edit retweets before I send them, which the iPod version of Tweetdeck doesn't and that annoyed the hell out of me. The best feature of Tweetdeck is the columns view and ability to set up separate lists. But I can do that on Twitter itself and then have the lists in Tweetme too so I get all the same functionality in a Twitter client that makes me want to use it.
Love this app. Flippin awesome. Its my default and go-to Twitter client on my phone.
I just switched from Tweed to TweetMe. Love this app and contrary to the review I actually find it to be a lot zippier that Tweed. Not only that, but I NEVER get too many card errors running TweetMe, where as with Tweed, the phone would start getting sluggish and I would start experiencing problems.
The forward swipe gesture is a genius feature. I've even started using it in other apps to get to the main menu only to be disappointed that the functionality is missing.
With regards to the reviewer complaining about have to do extra taps for retweets and such. There really isn't that much of a difference. To pull a sub-menu in Tweed, you still have to tap a tweet. TweetMe just brings up a new scene and is just as fast and provides a cleaner design and better options.
My only gripes is that I'm a huge marker fan in Tweed and prefer to read my tweets chronologically. TweetMe starts you off with the newest and you scroll down to the oldest with no marker features. I've decided I can live without this because it shines everywhere else.
I'm a huge Tweed fan and until TweetMe came along it definitely was the best app for twitter on the palm pre. Now, the best twitter app for webOS hands down is TweetMe. The bar has been raised.
Twitter is the beginning of the end.
OH! I also forgot to mention. Picture previews are nicely done; user searches, searches in general, and user look ups are beautiful.
Drafts: Drafts are an amazing feature. What also great is that if you start to write something but change your mind or run out of time, when you back swipe, the tweet your were working on gets automatically saved as a draft. If you don't want that to happen, you have the option to tap to delete in the notification bar. This app is pure genius.
Very well thought out and designed (meaning more than just look and feel, but also how it functions).
yeah....
TWEED > tweetme > twee
Nearby search needs fixed! No search radius is available. So I only get a few nearby responses. It still seems a little lagging. Needs the ability to go to the top or bottom. Right now the it's appearance is hands down the best looking imo. Fix these features and TweetMe will take the place of Twee.
Wow, how timely! Coincidentally, I downloaded both TweetMe and TweeFree to compare to Tweed, which I have been using since forever (almost:). Tweed has gotten a bit too staid for me, and I'm tired of having to retype tweets when Tweed fails to send them--usually Twitter's fault, but why can't they be saved until sent? Unfortunately, Tweed has a few features that still trump the other two (and Twee, I presume)
Since I don't actually live on Twitter, despite what my friends might think, it's mandatory for me that my timeline remains stable between sessions. Tweed does this--there is a setting. TweeFree and TweetMe both reposition to the top of the list with every refresh leaving me to have to search back to where I was last reading. That can often take all the available time I have at the moment. TweetMe at least drops a time marker at the refresh point. Not easy to find fast, but there and available.
Much of my interaction on Twitter is by way of conversations. Tweed puts a very obvious bubble icon in each tweet that is in response to another. TweetMe is a bit more subtle, but once you know to look for the 'stacked' profile pic, it's actually quite nice. TweeFree has no indication in the timeline--at least none I've been able to find--and every tweet has to be opened to discover if it's in a conversation.
Ok, what's up with the direct messages? Neither TweetMe or TweeFree show the DMs I've sent! If they've hidden them elsewhere, it isn't very obvious where to look. Tweed shows sent and received DMs in separate lists. I'd prefer conversation style, but at least both are there.
Well, despite TweetMe's pretty face, and TweeFree seems quicker, I'm sticking with Tweed for now. It's the only one that has all the features I need.
Use JSTop to monitor RAM usage with Tweed vs. TweetMe. Tweed appears to be a hog in this area. For this reason it seems, I frequently see the "too many cards" error while using Tweed and trying to multi-task. For this reason, prior to TweetMe, I was using Twee as my primary webOS twitter client. But now my primary is TweetMe. I don't see sluggishness with TweetMe. Actually it is the opposite, TweetMe feels really fast and responsive.
There are some things I would like to see in TweetMe: Markers, Scroll to top/bottom, Configure radius for nearby, Display new style retweets correctly, and Notifications only while app is open.
I agree with the memory hog issues of Tweed. I was surprised to see folks complaining about it being slow and sluggish when I found the opposite to be true. I haven't had any Too Many card errors since I began using TweetMe instead of Tweed. I wonder if folks experiencing the sluggishness were running both Tweed and TweetMe at the same time and/or if they had Tweed still set up to run notifications in the background.
I don't use Tweed, I use Twee and I made sure to turn off notifications and restart before using TweetMe. In the past days I've been using it exclusively and I still find it to be slow. I don't get too many card errors, but the phone does slow down quite a bit, especially if I have the web or music open and it can cause NaNplayer to stuter. Twee is faster for me and does not have these problems, so I've switched back.
That's so bizarre. I don't have that problem at all. Maybe some of the other apps are causing problems?
I love TweetMe. The one problem I have with it is that even though it's nice enough to mark where you last updated the feed, when you refresh it brings you to the top. Pretty much the only thing I liked about Tweed was that it would leave you where you were and would load all the new tweets ABOVE your current position. That way you don't have to scroll back dozens of tweets to see them in order.
I purchased the application but the app locks up after I enter my login information...even after the update.
But it looks great...for now I'm still using Twee!
I truly like this App, I was originally using TinyTwitter. TinyTwitter was a very simple app, and one that I don't suggest to anyone. TweetMe however is different, I suggest this app to everyone. I've not tried Tweed, but I will eventually.