Tweetium 3.0 - Bing 2024

Today we bring you an in-depth analysis of one of the best-known Twitter clients in the Microsoft ecosystem. We are referring to Tweetium, which has just reached version 3.0, taking advantage of it to leave its Beta phase and make the leap to the club universal apps, available on both Windows 8/8.1 and Windows Phone.

Tweetium is partly trying to fill a void caused by the mediocrity of the official Twitter apps on Windows and Windows Phone (both cases it has been a long time without receiving any update).In this way, it seeks to establish itself as the Twitter client to use if we use Windows tablets, PCs or phones. Does it meet that goal in version 3.0? Let's find out.

Tweetium on Windows 8

When you start using Tweetium on Windows 8, the first thing you'll probably notice is how customizable its layout, along with its heavy use of the horizontal scroll (following the style of Modern UI panoramic applications). From the first moment the application invites us to adjust the background and accent colors for those that we like best, allowing us to choose from more than 50 available combinations.

The interface also includes other customization options, allowing us to pin lists, users or saved searches to the navigation bar above, and thus have quick access to those elements.The rest of the bar elements can also be rearranged or removed, and we can even choose to hide the timeline image previews, or adjust the size of the text on the screen.

We also find correct support for the Windows 8 snap mode, being able to put the application in a reduced space on the screen, while we use the rest of the available space to run other applications. Of course, in snap mode the horizontal scroll is replaced by a vertical one, for practical reasons.

The app allows one-click favourite, retweet or reply by displaying such controls on top of each tweet on mouse hover. It is also able to show us the details of a conversation when we click on the tweet, or allow us to share it through the Windows 8 charms, although it cannot tell us who has Fav or RT a particular tweet.

As you'd expect, there's also support for trending, photo viewing, direct messages, and search, although the latter doesn't count with advanced filters. There are no filters for the timeline either, although we can silence users for defined periods (1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, or forever).

An excessive price for an application that is not extraordinary

As I explained in the paragraphs above, Tweetium is a functionally correct Twitter client. It's better than the official Windows app ( although the benchmark isn't very high there), but it doesn't offer any features either especially noteworthy Without going any further, TweetDeck (on the web or on the desktop) already includes tons of features that many would probably miss when using Tweetium, such as tweet scheduling, column filters, management of lists etc.

I like paying for good apps, but shelling out $11 to use something as basic as multiple account support seems excessive

It's not like those are things that every Twitter client should have, since many are satisfied with the most basic functions. But they are features that we would expect to see in a paid client like Tweetium, which requires us to shell out $2.99 to use it.

And the situation is even worse, since by paying those 2.99 dollars we don't even access the full functionality of Tweetium, instead we are asked to pay 7 , an additional $99 per year for multi-account support, push notifications , read mode for news, and a more detailed interaction view.

In total, we would be paying almost 11 dollars / euros to have functions as basic as multi-account support, which are even already in the official Twitter application.Personally I prefer to skip that, although the developer defends himself by pointing out that Twitter does not provide an API for several of these functions (for example, push notifications), so that he has had to implement alternative solutions that imply costs. I'm not going to doubt that this is the case, but I still think the total price is a bit high.

Tweetium on Windows Phone: a version that still needs to mature

Having said that about Tweetium on Windows 8, we now have to look at the version for Windows Phone. In it we find functionalities and appearance similar to those of its equivalent for PCs and tablets, also obtaining some advantages due to the integration between both platforms, such as synchronization of visual themes, and of lists or users anchored to the navigation bar.There is also support for landscape mode when rotating the phone.

Unfortunately, it is too noticeable that this is the first version of Tweetium for Windows Phone, as there are multiple bugs and problems , such as slow loading of the timeline or tweet details, inability to close the conversation view, among others.

Hopefully these bugs will be fixed in future updates, but for now the experience offered by Tweetium for Windows Phone is not good (unlike what happens in Windows 8, where it is a pleasure use the app, and my only criticisms were at the price.)

Conclusion: Still waiting for Rudy Huyn's Twitter client

To sum it up, Tweetium could be considered the best Twitter app for Windows 8 tablets, but that has more to do with that the official Twitter application is very bad, rather than that Tweetium is an exceptional client.And I specifically say tablets because on the desktop we have TweetDeck, which is a much more powerful and practical free alternative to Tweetium, but whose interface is designed to be used only with mouse and keyboard.

If we add to that the high price, and the unresolved issues in the Windows Phone version, we have to it's hard to recommend Tweetium , unless you use Twitter a lot in tablet mode, in which case it might be worth the $2.99.

If I were in the shoes of the Tweetium developer, I would consider embracing the Freemium model. That you offer us a free version of your application, for those people who are looking for a more basic use, added to a paid version by subscription, that is more reasonably priced, and that includes the current Pro functions along with others, such astweet scheduling, user list management, or advanced filtersProbably the increase in the number of Pro users would be enough to offset the drop in price.

Aeries is an alternative for Twitter on Windows Phone to take into account, but at the moment it is in Closed Beta

It is true that lately Twitter does not make it easy for those who want to create good clients, but Instagram is just as hostile in that, and even so we have Rudy Huyn developing a true gem like 6tag ( and at an affordable price).

All that said, I think those looking for an outstanding Twitter client on Windows will have to keep waiting, though maybe not for long, as projects like Aeries(currently in closed beta) look very promising. We will do our best to review this and other alternatives shortly.