Not content with having one of the most popular apps in the history of iOS, Facebook launched a second -- Facebook Messenger to create a quicker, cleaner path to owning your conversations. While Facebook as diversifying, LinkedIn was differentiating, releasing a new version of their app with their own, finally unique take on the social experience.
Path also released a new version with a bold, breathtaking new user experience and slightly more picturesque and timeline based focus. Apple added yet another separate social network to their portfolio, this time Find my Friends which offers very fine grained privacy control wrapped it more stitched leather than a puffy couch. And Google got into the game in a huge way with Google+.
Twitter for iPhone shed it's Tweetie heritage and while power users howled, it just might have become more usable for the mainstream. Luckily power users had plenty of places to turn with Tweetbot offering an entirely different take, with that trademark Tapbots look and increasingly deep functionality, and Twittelator Neue offering eye-popping animation and amped up interactions.
Verbs also did the remarkable by showing how simply and elegantly instant messages could be handled on mobile.
Incredibly different, incredibly rich, it's hard to pick just nine, never mind one -- but that's your job. Vote up top and tell us why you voted they way you did in the comments! These are your awards, so get to it!
