New York — After a fairly long wait, a process that began about six weeks ago has now come to fruition. Twitter has been escalating its presence in the mobile world. Just over a month since it acquired tweeting app dubbed as Tweetie, Twitter has launched its official app for the iPhone and iPod Touch today, and as promised, it is free and does not take direct aim at third-party developers.
In fact, the app itself is not completely new, but rather a refurbished version of Tweetie, which the social networking site bought out recently. Free of the annoying ads and unnecessary graphics found in most of the other third-party versions, the official Twitter app comes across as clean and straight-forward.
So now, iPhone owners who search for “Twitter” in the App Store will find one app, simply titled Twitter, that lets them Tweet to their heart’s content. And like before, users can send out tweets, see what those they follow are saying and issue direct messages to friends. The app also allows users to “share photos, videos and links,” according to a description in the App Store.
A post on the Twitter Blog explained, “Something worth noting is that you do not need a Twitter account to enjoy this application. Browsing trends, reading Top Tweets, finding popular users, and checking out public tweets geographically nearby are all possible immediately upon download. Discovery and consumption of interesting, relevant information is a central focus.”
The enhancements Twitter carried out to the original app are relatively slim. The company has upgraded the app’s search capabilities to help users find more content. Users who do not have a Twitter account can create one from within the app. The company has also made a “retweet” button more accessible.
The post then continued, “However, quick and easy signup exists within the application so new users would not need to visit our web site to create an account.”
The most obvious difference between Tweetie and the new Twitter app is that the latter is now available for free. Tweetie was originally on sale for $2.99 before Twitter acquired it.
“In some ways, I think Twitter has shot itself in the foot, as this gives a huge opening to their competitors to woo the developer community,” Paul McDonald, creator of mobile Twitter app UberTwitter, said in an interview back in April.
It should be interesting to see what comes of Twitter’s new app. Initial reactions to the converted app have been encouraging. Twitter seems to have succeeded in satisfying potential users while not alienating its developer community.