Twitter Clients

Once you get into the whole Twitter thing, odds are pretty good that you'll want to stay more up to date on what's going on with your fellow pokes, as well as know when somebody is trying to talk to you. While the twitter site serves as a basic way to view everything, there are a ton of alternatives that allow you to view everything in an interface that is easier to manage. Since there are a ton of apps, I thought it would be a good idea to make a list of the various programs and services that exist for Twitter. Expect this list to be fleshed out over time.

If you use a twitter application that isn't listed here, feel free to add onto this list. Be sure to list the pros and cons, as well as a link to the program itself.

iOS Apps
Before we really dig into iOS apps, it's important to mention that your iPhone has some basic twitter functionality without any apps. If you go into your phone's settings, you should find an "Twitter" option. If you log in to your twitter account from here, it mainly serves two purposes. The first is that most dedicated twitter apps will automatically add all of your iOS registered accounts into their app. It also grants you the ability to share items directly from iOS. For example, tweeting a photo directly from the built-in photo app.

Twitter (Free)
Download Twitter here (Universal app) This is probably the first app most people will try, mainly because it's free, it's the official app, and the ios settings page includes a button to download it directly to your phone without actually visiting the app store. For a free app, it works pretty well for the most part. you can read your timeline pretty easily, and you can even get push notifications sent to your phone.

PROS CONS
 * Free
 * Supports multiple accounts
 * Imports your accounts set up in the iOS settings automatically
 * Push notifications whenever you get a reply or notification
 * The ability to completely edit your profile from your phone, even uploading new images.
 * Universal app (you can use the same app on both an iPhone and iPad).
 * No timeline syncing
 * No ability to hide tweets with a certain keyword or through a certain service
 * Prone to frequent updates that cause drastic changes (eg when twitter introduces a new feature), oftentimes leaving you at twitter's mercy if they introduce something
 * "Promoted" tweets and accounts tend to take precedence, randomly appearing in your timeline

Tweetbot ($5 for iPhone, $3 for iPad)
Download Tweetbot 3 for iPhone here, Download Tweetbot 2 for iPhone, or Download Tweetbot 2 for iPad Tweetbot is a great app if you like reading through your entire timeline. It's probably the fastest-loading of all the iOS twitter clients, has some very useful muting features, and even offers the ability to sync your timeline position. It even takes advantage of iOS7's ability to update in the background, downloading new tweets when you're not using your phone so you don't even have to wait for it to load. It's important to note that there are multiple versions of Tweetbot sold on the app store. If you have an iPhone 4 or newer, you should download Tweetbot 3, as it's a new app they made to take advantage of the new iOS7 features. If you're using an older device, you should download Tweetbot 2. For the most part, the two apps are essentially identical, but Tweetbot 2 was made for older firmwares.

PROS CONS
 * Supports multiple accounts
 * Imports your accounts set up in the ios settings automatically
 * Updates in the background to reduce initial tweet loading
 * More control over push notifications. You can also disable notifications from people you're not following, and completely disable notifications at a certain time of the day (eg when you're asleep)
 * Timeline syncing via TweetMarker
 * The ability to mute tweets by a certain user, muting certain keywords, or muting certain clients (eg muting tweets autotweeted from people sharing videos on YouTube)
 * Edit your profile from your phone (however banner editing currently isn't implemented)
 * No ads or promoted tweets
 * Costs $5, no trial or demo version.
 * Muting tweets only mutes offending tweets in the future, meaning you'll still have to read any tweets that were already downloaded before the mute went into effect
 * Not a universal app