Last Thursday (Feb. 11), RIM released an invite-only beta version of Twitter for BlackBerry. It has been a hot topic for a while, and a highly anticipated release from RIM. I know many of you are wondering how RIM’s Twitter app holds up next to the competition? Quite well, actually. I was lucky enough to get my hands on a copy and I must say, I’m pretty impressed.
Hit the link to read more and for screenshots.
With RIM facing heavy-hitters like UberTwitter and SocialScope with their vastly popular Twitter clients, they have their work cut out for them. The first thing you notice when you first launch the application is how attractive the user interface is. It’s packed with bold colors that give it a very well-developed feel. Another thing that sticks out quite a bit is the fact that they’re following in the footsteps of the other Twitter clients with the tabs at the top of the screen. RIM’s app offers a few more tabs than the competitors with Home, Mentions, My Profile, Direct Messages, Find People, Search, and Popular Topics. One of the negative things I’ve found about their tabs is that the application doesn’t seem to cache anything. With applications like SocialScope, your mentions are pulled directly from your timeline, and the older mentions are cached for faster access. The profile pictures of the people you follow are cached in other applications, but they don’t seem to be in RIM’s client. This just means that everything will take just that much longer to load.
Probably my favorite thing about the application is the ability to send Direct Messages and tweets from the messages list. This makes tweeting much easier and makes the Twitter experience more like it should be. RIM finally integrated Twitter like they did with their Facebook app. Another feature that sets Twitter for BlackBerry apart is message list integration and push support for Direct Messages. It makes Direct Messages much more useful and easy to use from your device.
All of the timelines take a little longer than I want for them to load (even with great coverage). Every time you try to look at your mentions, the feed has to load. This means the application has to pull data from Twitter, which uses more power. Using Twitter for BlackBerry, I seem to burn through my battery much faster than when I use other clients. There is also a lag when you click on a tweet or try to tweet from your message list. When you click on a tweet, it loads the user’s profile. This displays that person’s bio, location, and other various information you can find on their profile on Twitter. It’s a nice feature, but takes too long to load. The last complaint I have about Twitter for BlackBerry is how there is no option to change the font size. The stock font that comes on it is a little large which forces you to scroll a lot when looking through your timelines. Only two or three fit on the screen at one time, which can get a little annoying.
The Options page is a little light as well. Much like the Facebook app from RIM, there are only a few settings to tweak in Twitter for BlackBerry. One thing I love about my BlackBerry is how many settings there are to tinker with and tweak. Their applications always seem to leave me hanging when it comes to options.
Despite a few things that need work, the application is packed full of some very nice features, and it looks great. RIM is definitely off to a great start, but they need to fix a few things before Twitter for BlackBerry is truly ready for primetime. They have some things that set them apart from the competition, and are headed in the right direction. I’m curious to see where RIM can take it and how much more they can differentiate themselves from the other clients. I would have to rate Twitter for BlackBerry at a 3.5 out of 5. It’s not the most enjoyable application to use, but using it from the messages list makes things just that much easier. I don’t see this version replacing SocialScope on my 9700, but I’m definitely going to keep it on my device.
If you want to read up on Twitter for BlackBerry, or you want to sign up for updates from RIM about their client, go here. Let us know what you hope to see change in the official release in the comments below!
