Today, Twitter announced a new design for the popular micro-blogging site that will start rolling out over the next couple of weeks, which they hope will make it easier than ever to connect with other users and discover great new content.
If you go to Twitter.com, you won’t see the sexy new interface for a while yet, but as part of their push to update all officially supported Twitter platforms to the new paradigm, Twitter has pushed out a totally overhauled version of the Twitter for iPhone app.
Twitter for iPhone 4.0 is a free download, and by all accounts, it’s even faster and more pleasant to use than ever before.
The main addition to the new Twitter app is four new buttons that act as hubs for the way you interact with Twitter. The official description lays out the methodology of the hubs:
Home is where you start from: a personal collection of Tweets from the sources you care about. The Tweet details show rich information such as replies, retweets and embedded images.
Connect is the place to see who followed or mentioned you, retweeted or favorited one of your Tweets. It’s where you keep the conversation flowing.
Discover is where you can tap into the stories and trends people are talking about in your world. You can also find friends, browse interests, and explore hashtags here.
Me puts you and your interests front and center. From here you can exchange Direct Messages with your followers.
The new app looks great, but the changes haven’t yet come to the iPad version, so unless you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you won’t see any changes.
What do you think of the new Twitter app? Let us know.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
11 responses to “Twitter Releases New iPhone App”
I think they shouldn’t have moved direct messages :(((
Is there an update planned for the Mac version? It’s starting to feel (very) outdated, I mean it can’t even upload pics using the official Twitter API. :-/
Before, I could slide my finger horizontally across the tweet I wanted to RT or respond to. Now, I must click on the tweet, which opens it up to a new screen – with those options. Very annoying, more clicks.
Same with trends. You have to expand out to see all trends. Again, more clicks.
or should I say “touches”
I like it a lot, with one exception- where are the saved “Favorites?” Haven’t heard back from @support:twitter yet.
@twitter-280401608:disqus – Are you using the latest Version 2.1.1 from the App store on the Mac?
I use it every so often and sometimes is a little challenging. I have a feeling they want to get the website done first so that there will be almost no need to use a stand-alone app while on a desktop/laptop computer other than the browser version.
I’m starting to like it but my first impression was not very good
@ZoeHenderson:disqus  Per a tweet from a Twitter mobile developer, the swipe features should be coming back in the near future.
I prefer the older version. I still prefer Tweetie over the Twitter for iPhone app.
This is the main reason I dislike the new app. I hope this changes. And soon.Â
Yes I’m running the latest version from the Mac App Store. I have doubts it’ll be updated at all.