Top 5 Alternatives to the Twitter app on iPhone

Twitter is the world's most used micro-blogging service. It is accessible by almost all devices with an internet connection using the web version, Twitter's official smart phone app and third party apps. Being a huge Twitter user I decided to spend some time looking for the top alternatives to the Twitter app on iPhone.

The results of my research and experimenting with each app for a few days lead to this blog post. For each app I'll state the pros and cons of the app as well as a paragraph with any more information. I hope this helps.

Keep in mind that the apps are not all necessarily in any order.

1- Tweetbot: $4.99

Pros:

• Night mode by swiping down on the timeline with two fingers
• Customizable tabs, leading to a tailored experience for users
• iPad app available too
• Beautiful animations throughout the whole app
• Gestures to favorite and reply
• Support for multiple accounts, easy to switch between accounts as well as retweeting and favoriting with a different account than the one you're currently using
• Quickest third party app to update to support new features introduced by Twitter, eg uploading multiple images

Cons:

• No lite or ad-supported version available
• iPad app is a separate purchase, and it hasn't been updated to iOS 7 yet
• Search doesn't show suggestions as you type, and it's hard to find your friends via search since results appeared to be ordered by popularity and not relevance

Tweetbot has got to be my favorite Twitter app without any doubt. It provides the best Twitter experience on iPhone. I'll quote Rene Ritchie from iMore:

[Tweetbot] also has buttons that bounce into place, dialogs that drop from view, backgrounds that blur away, overlays that can be spun around, images that can be tossed away, and other delightful, decidedly iOS 7-touches, that also come off as so very Tapbots.

Tweetbot is the most complete third party app. Although there's no free version to try out the app, and no universal support, the app still remains the best in many people's opinion. It's my favorite app, but most the apps in this list are very close too.

2- Twitterrific: Free + in app purchases

Pros:

• Night mode, swipe with two fingers to the right. Night mode can also auto activated at night
• Great transitions and simple design
• Gestures to reply to tweets
• Multiple account support
• Universal, includes support for iPad
• Free version available
• Today tab shows notifications you received recently (paid feature)
• Customizable tabs
• Landscape mode when reading tweets

Cons:

• Doesn't show count of retweets and favorites
• Doesn't support drafts
• Not as quick to update to new features as Tweetbot is
• Large number of users reporting consistent crashes and bugs

Twitterific was one of the first apps in the App Store, and the developers of Twitterrific are actually the ones who invented the word 'tweet', according to Cult of Mac. For $3.99 you can unlock everything in the app including translations, ad-free experience and notifications.

I love Twitterrific's simplicity and universal support. The app provides a great experience for a Twitter app. Twitterrific combines a simple design with some customization and power user features. If that's what you looking for then be sure to give it a try, since it's free!

3- Tweet7: $2.99

Pros:

• Best looking Twitter app for iPhone
• Very simple, only one button on the tweets screen
• Relies on gestures to use app
• Notification when you're using the app
• Large inline images showing the whole picture rather than just a small preview (can be disabled)

Cons:

• Limited features
• Very basic, can't open a tweet to view more details
• No push notifications for when app isn't running
• Lacks multiple account support

Tweet7 is by no means a powerful Twitter client, but it is absolutely gorgeous. The app features beautiful translucencies adopted from iOS 7. All your mentions and messages are a slide away all the time, meanwhile you're left with no button on the screen but a tweet button.

The app really adopts the iOS 7 design so well, hence the name Tweet7. If you're not looking for powerful features but would rather have a gorgeous simple app then Tweet7 may be the app for you. It's for the basic user who just wants a timeline to scroll through and easily accessible mentions and direct messages.

4- Tweetcaster: free + $4.99

Pros:

• Ad supported version for free
• Shows how many people retweeted a tweet
• Has features of a full Twitter client
• Ability to add Tweets to Buffer directly from the app
• Lots of options and settings to configure, making the app more personal
• Universal app
• Unlike most third party apps, this shows recent followers in the interactions tab
• Support for multiple accounts
• Support for Facebook
• App is frequently updated

Cons:

• Users complain it gets buggy
• Notifications require another app (Boxcar)
• Lack of gestures
• To retweet or favorite a tweet you have to be taken to the tweet details page, therefore making the process inconvenient
• The app doesn't have a night mode and doesn't look as good as most of the other apps in this list
• TweetCaster feels a bit too cluttered, unlike the official Twitter app and other third party apps too

TweetCaster is a powerful Twitter Client. There's an app for iPhone, iPad and Android as well as a web version on the computer (beta). The app is complete and will probably have all the features that you would want in a Twitter client. However, as mentioned in the cons, it feels a bit too cluttered and not straight to the point.

If you want a powerful Twitter app and not too concerned with a very beautiful design then you may enjoy TweetCaster. The ad-supported version has all the features of the full version, so you can enjoy a full experience for free.

5- TweetLogix ($2.99)

Pros:

• Universal app
• Themes: Highly customizable appearance. User can create themes for a unique experience or choose from three built in themes
• Supports multiple accounts
• Full features of a twitter app
• Good support for Twitter lists
• Tweet longer than 140 characters using integrated Twitlonger service 
• Landscape support everywhere

Cons:

• Replying to DMs isn't very convenient
• Images in the timeline are way too small
• Although two of the themes are dark, there's no gesture for night mode but instead the user needs to go through a few menus to get there
• Notifications require another free app (Boxcar), instructions
• No free version to try out the app

TweetLogix is a great Twitter client for iPhone. The app is powerful, simple to use and highly customizable. The lack of push notifications though is a killer and is the reason I'm not using it. However TweetLogix makes use of background app refresh (iOS 7) to give infrequent notifications if the app was running a few minutes ago. More on that here.

If you're after a completely unique and personal experience while using Twitter then TweetLogix may be the right app for you.

Conclusion

These are my top 5 Twitter apps (not in order). Every app has it's strong and weak points. I just don't enjoy the Twitter app and constantly give it a second chance but it just don't live up to my needs.

Perhaps your top twitter app wasn't even included in my list. There are a few more twitter apps worth noting such as Osfoora 2 and Echofon.

What is your favorite Twitter app for iPhone? Have I missed it out from the list?