Fans of the OG third-party Twitter client, Twitterrific; Get excited. Today, The Iconfactory has just launched the completely redesigned and updated version 5.0, now available in the Mac App Store.
Basically, Twitterrific for Mac has been revamped with a better design, new features, and a similar vibe to Twitterrific on iPhone and iPad. It seems the developers took what they've learned from building for iOS and are folding it into the Mac version. Nice move.
Twitterrific provides an individual window that hovers in the background on your Mac's desktop. It's got lots of customization features so you can use Twitter the way you want to. For example, you can decide whether to search for local or global trending content (I much prefer global), and you can change the font size and background theme (light or dark), and you can add a keyboard shortcut to call up Twitterrific at any time by pressing a couple of keys.
You can sync Twitterrific in iCloud so you can pick up from where you left off on any device. You don't have to try to figure out which tweet you read last. You can set your customization to scroll to the synced marker.
My favorite feature is the Menu bar icon. You may already know that I'm a huge Menu bar widget user. With Twitterrific conveniently located in the top right corner of my screen, I can access it at any time.
Oh, wait, my real favorite feature is the fact that I can actually edit my tweets. Oh, the irritation when you realize you've sent out a tweet with a typo. People love to make fun of your mistakes. With Twitterrific, I can fix it.
You can have multiple windows open with different Twitter account timelines running at the same time. I can keep track of my personal Twitter feed while making sure the iMore feed is running smoothly.
If you're really in need of some focused Twitter activity, you can enter full-screen mode and leave the rest of the world behind.
There are a number of keyboard shortcuts that make using Twitterrific absolutely pleasant, like hitting Command N to start a new tweet, or Command 2 to view your mentions. You can switch between Home, Mentions, Messages, Favorites, Lists, and Search by either clicking on the icon at the top of the Twitterrific window or by hitting its associated keyboard shortcut.
Thanks to a discovery from Marco Zehe on Twitter (via Twitterrific), I found out you can add descriptions to your images, which is a great feature to help with accessibility.
Speaking of accessibility, Twitterrific for Mac supports VoiceOver, so you can have your tweets read to you.
It's also got Notification Center support. When you get new mentions or messages, you can receive a banner or alert. You can customize the way you receive the notification in your Mac's Notification Center settings.
There are a few obvious omissions from the Twitterrific interface. For example, I can't figure out how to view my own profile to see and edit tweets I've sent. It might be there somewhere, but I haven't found it.
Also, viewing a tweet thread was not easy to figure out. I finally found it by double-clicking on a tweet. But, there isn't a simple icon.
Twitteriffic 5.0 is available now in the Mac App Store for $19.99. It's still got a lot of work, but it's a great beginning and The Iconfactory has a lot of features in the works. It's only going to get better over time.
