Review: Four Top Applications to Simplify the Twitter Experience

Hong Kong – To tweet or not to tweet, is no longer the question. The question is: how to be master of Twitter instead of slave to it.

There has been a huge boom of development of numerous high-quality, cross-platform applications that make it easier to use Twitter from a computer or mobile phone. This review will focus on four of the most popular applications:

• Tweetdeck
• Twhirl
• Seemic Desktop
• Destroy Twitter

All are free, all are computer apps, all are Adobe AIR applications.

Tweet Deck

Version: 0.33.2
Download: http://www.tweetdeck.com
Ideal for those suffering information overload.
Verdict: (4.5/5)

What’s cool?

• Facebook status update integration
• Syncs with iPhone app
• Customizable colours
• Information grouping
• Unlimited number of groups (columns)
• Limited screen to force information filtering
• Recommends people to follow
• Auto-url shortening
• Allows users to report spam

Twhirl

Version: 0.9.4
Download: http://www.twhirl.org
Ideal for those who don’t follow hundreds or thousands of people and just need a quick and simple means of updating information
Twhirl is from Seesmic — also see the review of the Seesmic Desktop below.
Verdict: (3/5)

What’s cool?

• Lightweight and easy-to-use
• Notifications when you get a hit on saved search items
• Ability to choose colours and fonts

What’s not?

• No grouping support
• No customization of pop-up types

Seemic Desktop

Version: 0.7

Download: http://desktop.seesmic.com
Looking for group and multi-account support? Try it.
Want your voice heard by the developer? Go to their feedback site. They take it seriously.
Verdict: (4/5)

What’s cool?

• Pop-up notifications, customizable specific to search results, @replies and direct messaging
• Support for unlimited number of multiple Twitter accounts and columns
• High level of customization
• Facebook integration (including comments and likes)
• Unlimited saved searches
• Ability to report spam

What’s not?

• Cannot un-favourite a tweet

Destroy Twitter

Version: 1.7.2 Beta
Download: https://destroytwitter.com
Need more control over settings? Want a dark interface? Destroy Twitter is your choice.
Verdict: (3.5/5)

What’s cool?

• Rich set of user-configurable options
• Information grouping

What’s not?

• No multiple-accounts
• No customisable colours or fonts

Finally, a table of comparison of the four applications: