Tweet, tweet, Twitter for Android and iOS get big updates
Suddenly mobile Twitter makes lots of sense to me, and I wonder what good the desktop or web clients are at all. Versions 3.2 and 4.2, available today for Android and iOS, respectively, improve discovery, search and, more importantly, interaction with others and topics that matter most to you.
Not that Twitter mobile was bad before, it's just whole lots better now -- and where you need it most. On the go. Most of the goodness is behind the Discover tab, which after being much of a wasteland before is now lively and filled with streaming content relevant to you.
For example, Twitter better presents the activity of people you follow, including in my stream today the folks they start following. This discovery method feels more like a social network and connects you to new people. That's what friends -- eh, followers -- are for, meeting new people. No surprise, you'll see who's retweeting what -- and also who's adding whom to lists.
There's more. "Now you can tap any story once to see Tweets about a particular trend or news article", Sung Hu Kim, Twitter product manager, says. "You can then read the entire story or join the conversation by replying, retweeting or favoriting related Tweets".
Search gets a decidedly modern makeover, with useful autocomplete and suggestions. I've gotten addicted to Google+ member autocomplete, a capability now available for Twitter in the Connect tab.
But it's better on iOS than Android. "We’ve also made a few improvements specifically for iPhone: when you tap the search box in Discover, you’ll see your most recent queries", Kim explains. "You can also go directly to someone’s profile when searching for a username in Connect".
Finally, and you'll love or hate it, push notifications now include Interactions. Yeah, don't you want to know when Jack Smugface disses you, so you can respond now rather than hours later? But some users may want to tone down this one's settings, particularly if people frequently retweet or favorite your 140-character musings. Hey, battery life is precious and too many notifications suck it up.