Buffer 4.0 for iPad and iPhone released, becomes universal app

Social media scheduling service Buffer has unveiled Buffer 4.0 for iPad and iPhone, a major new release of its companion app for sharing and scheduling posts on social networks. Like the web-based service, the app supports Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn accounts.

Version 4.0 becomes a universal app, and now offers full, native iPad support. It also adds a new Share option for scheduling content from other apps.

The major change is full support for the iPad with a user interface that’s designed to take full advantage of the larger screen and works in both portrait and landscape orientations. Users can enjoy all of the functionality found on the web: simply connect to an existing Buffer account and tools for sharing, scheduling and analysing posts are included.

Also included is support for linking RSS feeds to profile accounts, a feature designed to make it easier to share content from favourite web feeds directly from inside the app itself.

Version 4.0 also comes with support (and optimization) for iOS 8. This includes adding support for sending content to Buffer via the native Share menus, which includes Safari, Instapaper and Tweetbot.

On our test iPad, the app proved rather unstable, crashing at certain points. We suspect a bug-fix update will follow shortly to resolve these issues. However, once these are ironed out, the app should finally come of age, providing a convenient alternative to the Buffer web interface for queuing up and sharing of media, links and other updates.

Buffer 4.0 is available now free for iPad and iPhone running iOS 7.0 or later. Users will require a Buffer account (free or paid-for) in order to use the app.