Discover more, search more, and get notified more with updated Twitter for iPhone

Twitter for iPhone isn't your early adopter, power user app. It's not designed fro the gadget nerd with tons of followers who engages in non-stop repartees with like-minded friends, peers, and colleagues all day. It for the new mainstream Twitter user who has very few followers, follows tons of celebrities, and is looking for more and better ways to find something... anything... to do on Twitter. Like it or not, since the last redesign, that's the the official Twitter app's target user now. And that's who they're improving things for with this update.
Discover promises "more interesting and timely content that matters to you". Basically that means you see a paid placement on top (mine's a Yahoo! add I could not possibly care less about out), a hashtag (mine's #NewFront, which is impenetrable to me), a trending tweet (mine is something about an Ex-Liberian president that it says is trending but I've never expressed any interest in), a trio of recent friend activities, including their retweets, follows, and favorites, a trio of additional trending hashtags and terms, and a trio of people Twitter recommends you follow.
Activity appears below the redesigned stories in Discover. Now you can tap any story once to see Tweets about a particular trend or news article. You can then read the entire story or join the conversation by replying, retweeting or favoriting related Tweets.
Again, I'm not the Lady Gaga following nouveau Twitter type, I'm not their target user, but all of this is completely lost on me. This tab could disappear tomorrow and my enjoyment of the app would only increase.
Search has also been improved, and claims to be simpler and more error-proof with different spellings and related terms. The search box is present in both the Connect and Discover tabs, the former of which prioritizes @names and full names, the latter of which prioritizes #hashtags or keywords. You can also get a search history in the Discover tab.
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. You can also go directly to someone’s profile when searching for a username in Connect.
I usually prefer one search box to rule them all, Twitter optimizing different search boxes for different types of content works well, even if it adds extra cognitive load by making users choose the "proper" tab before they can query the system.
Notifications have also been made more robust, and you can now be alerted to tweets, retweets, and follows, in addition to the usual @mentions and direct messages (DMs). It brings Twitter for iPhone up to parity with some other clients, but is also a power user feature in what's clearly a mainstream targeted app. Unless Lady Gaga is retweeting and favoriting me left and right, this feature would have felt far more at home in the older version of Twitter.
Overall, the user interface remains gorgeous, the functionality solid, the implementation silky smooth, and the focus on Twitter's new mainstream audience commendable. It's just not the good old Twitter many of us knew and loved, and it's a little sad there's no official Twitter Pro app that could have somehow melded the new experience with the old, more power-user centric functionality and layout.
Free - Download now (opens in new tab)
Source: Twitter blog
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Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.
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I dont know why people are still using this app. It really has become crap every since the UI change. Tweetbot is hands down the best I know I have spent too much money on all of them.
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Tweetbot is the king of twitter clients.
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What about switching between accounts?
Also, Nearby?
If there's no change to those, it's useless to me.
Tweetbot. -
"The gadget nerd with tons of followers who engages in non-stop repartees with like-minded friends, peers, and colleagues all day."
Can a bio update be far behind? :) -
Tweetbot FTW!!!
Also, FYI there is a typo in the first line of this story. -
Notifications seem to be coming much quicker now where as before I would have to go into the app most of the time to see updates.
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I don't really see this as just an app for beginners. I've been using Twitter since it started and the official app meets all my needs. Perhaps I'm not a "power user", but really my friends who might be put into that category really don't do much more intense things than I do (and most default to the Twitter app anyway).
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I agree. I've had an account since the beginning (some time in 2006, I think) but have yet to hit 1,000 tweets, or 50 followers. I actually use iQuick Tweet to post and the Facebook integration to post to Facebook quickly. This app is good enough for following the few dozen Red Sox and Boston sports accounts, blogs, etc.
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I might be the only one thats using Tweetlogix - solely for its muting capabilities. Being able to mute clients, hashtags, users (why not just unfollow?) and keywords. I mainly use the feature to mute keywords. I have people that love to rt crap so I just put their names in the keyword and that filters all that crap out.
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Agreed, Tweetlogix rules. Not sure why this client gets so little press. I find it to be much better than Tweetbot.
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I'm not that big of a fan of Tweetbot, still using Twitter 3.5.1
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Really awesome.... now i can access my Twitter account anywhere i wan't to use...Really nice apps...
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I've tried twitter for iPhone, Tweetings, echofon.
Tweetbot is the best IMO. All the options u want: muting, multiple accounts, timeline list views, with a smooth and quick ui.