The Droids have decided to do a couple quick Twitter application reviews and a comparison of the two: Twidroid and Seesmic. Both apps are available free via the market and I am using, reviewing and comparing the free Twidroid app with Seesmic. I will be sure and point out the differences between the free and paid app of Twidroid. Also, I will preface this review with the following statement: I’m not a huge Twitter user, as a matter of fact, I just started using Twitter after I began this website so that I’d have another source for information distribution. As such, I have never once posted a pic or video using Twitter. I do use bit.ly often for my tweets. I have very few followers and very few that I follow. I don’t stay up to date with Tweets either. I just want everyone to know where I am coming from when I state an opinion and realize that I may end up with a different opinion than you the reader. With that done, let’s get started.I won’t talk about all the features of each Twitter application. Instead I will focus on the two main points of a Twitter app; reading Tweets and writing Tweets and how Twidroid and Seesmic handle these tasks. Let’s start with Twidroid free. I will review version 3.0.6, which is the current version I have installed on my phone. Opening Twidroid is fairly straight forward and quick to do. Enter your user name and password and you are setup. You are shown a list of recent tweets and at the bottom of the screen shortcut icons for various sections, including Home, Tweet, Replies, Inbox, Search and Refresh. These are the majority of the commands/features the average Twitter user would need. Hitting the menu button brings up more details, such as a link to your profile, settings, trends, and more.
Twidroid Main Screen
Reading tweets on Twidroid is very easy. With Twidroid you are brought first to this main page which lists the latest tweets from those you follow. And the best feature I have found, is that is stays on the last tweet you read, so that you don’t have to scroll down the list of tweets to find where you left off. Touching any of the tweets will bring up a quick menu for replying, following the link etc of the tweet.
Twidroid Individual Tweet View
Hitting the Tweet icon (looks like the chat icon) brings to the front a quick input box for writing a tweet. It’s simple, but very easy to get to. If you wish to include a pic or video there is a button to quickly add a file or take a pic/video. There is no url shortening feature built in for the free version, and that I have to admit is the biggest drawback of Twidroid free. However, as stated, reading your tweets and writing one involve very little unneeded scrolling or button/screen tapping. One tap to start a tweet and no scrolling required to get to the latest tweets you have no yet read.
Writing a Tweet with Twidroid
Now let’s look at Seesmic. Upon entering the application, it’s fairly similar to Twidroid in that you enter your user name and password and get started. The main page that you start with differs a little in that it has some tabs up top for the most used functions and the rest can be found by hitting the menu button.
Seesmic Main Page
I feel the tabs up top are a little too big and they take up some valuable real estate on a small screen. When you first open the application, you are presented with the most recent tweets at the top and a big button for refreshing the tweet list. Again, this refresh button takes up even more real estate so that you get 3-4 tweets on the screen. And, to see the tweets that you haven’t read yet, you must scroll down until you find one you don’t remember reading. That is a bit of a pain. When reading a tweet in Seesmic, touching the tweet brings you to another page, where you can follow the links, search the hashes, or reply to a tweet.
Seesmic Individual Tweet View
To write a tweet, you must first hit the menu button then hit compose and you will be brought to the compose section of Seesmic. From there you can attach pics or videos, your location and url shortening. The inclusion of url shortening in this free version is very nice. However, having to hit two buttons to start writing a Tweet is a little bit of a pain. I feel that the last tab on the main screen, the tab currently for your profile, should be replaced with a tab for writing a tweet and the profile tab can be tucked into the menu items. It just seems more efficient.
Writing a Tweet with Seesmic
The main differences between the two applications and how they handle reading and writing tweets are as follows:
Reading Tweets
- Twidroid presents the latest unread tweets and remembers where you left off. The view of tweets is greater due to smaller icons for each function.
- Seesmic has a smaller tweet viewing area due to the large tabs for functions and it presents the latest tweets first, forcing you to scroll down to the last tweet you remember reading.
Writing Tweets
- Twidroid has a one button/touch access to writing a tweet, however does not come with url shortening in the free version.
- Seesmic requires two buttons/touches to begin writing a tweet but does come with url shortening standard.
Both applications offer a variety of options and settings for establishing your favourite url shortening service, twitter photo service and video service. Seesmic offers yFrog, Twitpic and MobyPicture for pictures and yFrog, Twitvid and YouTube for videos. They offer three different Url shortening services; Bit.ly, J.mp and TinyURL. Twidroid offers Phodroid, Twitpic, Twitgoo and yFrog for pictures but does not offer video service in the free version. It does list out the available url shortening services, but doesn’t support that in the free version. The available services are Short.to, TinyURL, Bit.ly, is.go, and tr.im. That’s a nice list, too bad it’s not available.
Twidroid does have a number of additional features in the Pro version not found in Seesmic, including setting up multiple Twitter accounts, color schemes, and refresh to shake to name a few.
In short, if you are a basic Twitter user who isn’t interested in url shortening or video uploads, I highly recommend Twidroid free for you. However, if video uploading and url shortening is a must, Seesmic is for you. And, if you must have multiple accounts, go for Twidroid Pro, for around $5 US. If you don’t mind spending money, definitely do Twidroid Pro as it has all the features of Seesmic and then some.
UPDATE: I forgot to add, for those counting available RAM like beans, as reported by ASTRO file manager, Seesmic is using 14.38M and Twidroid is using 10.67M. Now this fluctuates a little, but it’s more like plus/minus .50M, so Seesmic appears to be a bigger memory hog, by about 25%.
UPDATE 2: Apparently ASTRO doesn’t do a good job of reporting memory usage. I will double check and update when I have new numbers.
I have personally choosen to use Twidroid for the two main points:
- Opens to the last unread tweet.
- One click tweeting.
I am wondering what our readers have to say about this. Let us know by answering the poll, or comment below.
