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Twitter HQ: Logo artwork Copyright Marisa Allegra Williams (@marisa) for Twitter, Inc.

Probably like some of you nice folks out there I am on Twitter. I have been a paid up tweeting tweeter since 2009, if memory serves. Not that means very much in the grand scheme of things. I also perhaps again like many of you than one twitter account. I started out on Tweep (HTC’s twitter app) and then then Twitter’s own app, Sessmic (now acquired by Hootsuite another twitter app provider), there have been so many apps over the years.

So more recently my tweeting app of choice was Tweetdeck. In fact I still use the web application however with the end of support of the Tweetdeck app by twitter I found myself switching to Twitter’s own app. This did not seem to be an issue until December 2013 when Twitter in their infinite wisdom updated the app user interface (UI). This update was the final straw for me. I had put up with picture upload failures and crashes on account switching but the new app UI made ittwitter-app almost unworkable for me. I was constantly switching into the “Discover” or “Activity” column when I wanted my “Direct Messages” or “Notifications”. These functions themselves annoyingly changed to tiny little buttons in the title bar and worse still there was no way to change them back.

I hated the app so much so that it actually reduced my tweeting or I actually lost interest in twitter completely, often only tweeting when I was using the tweetdeck app on my PC! Hence this blog as I am now spending a few weeks testing several different twitter apps/platforms to finally replace the Twitter’s own app - I hope.

So I have a list:

The first thing to note that all of the apps above have both free and paid for versions. Due to the way Google play now works I will ONLY be using the free versions for testing otherwise it will cost me a fortune.

The Test

Each app gets 7 days (1 week) as my PC, phone and pad (all Android) twitter app of choice. I will activate as many of my twitter accounts as I can on my phone (less on my pad - depending on setup) and none on PC if there is no client. I will then run the app mainly from my phone during that week. Tweeting pictures, tweets, mentions, favourites and DM’ing - the normal tweeting stuff. At the end of the week I will post my review of the app. This will appear on Wednesday as my blog posting. So in theory each blog post will be made whilst I’m using a different app on my phone, confusing yes?

The Conclusion

At the end of testing of the app list above, and potentially more apps if people of twitter suggest some, I will pick a new tweeter app for my phone. I will also give an overall round up of the apps summarising the longer weekly review down into a single blog post.

Tweetdeck

I will continue to use Tweetdeck as my primary PC interface UNLESS one of the products has its own PC/browser app then I will use both for the duration.

Ok I think that is all for now, let the testing begin……………………………..O’by the way when this blog post goes live I will have already completed my first week of testing. One in the bag you may say.