Tweetbot 3 vs Twitterrific 5

Tweetbot Homepage viewed in Safari
This morning marked the release of the highly anticipated Tweetbot 3 for iOS 7. Tweetbot made a name for themselves a couple of years ago when they released one of the best 3rd party Twitter client in the App Store. Their design were outstanding and one of a kind, enabling them to surpass all other Twitter clients. Tweetbot was so good, I paid $2.99 for the iPhone client and also $4.99 for the iPad client. I just can't bear the default Twitter client that Twitter provided for free.

I used Tweetbot for months but when Twitteriffic 5 was released this year, I switched. I switch because Twitterrific introduced a brand new UI which was way radical than anything I have seen. It was smooth, minimalistic, playful via tasteful colour, beautiful. And for $2.99, it was a Universal app, meaning it runs for both iPhone and iPad. And this was months before iOS 7 was announced. Twitterrific set a new bar, they already envisioned the minimalistic approach of iOS 7 and at one point, it already feels like using an iOS 7 app before iOS 7 got into the hands of the mainstream users.  I was hooked. Tweetbot 2 looked dated in comparison.


Tweetbot 3 for iPhone

So, a month after Apple released iOS 7 to the masses, Tweetbot 3 for iPhone, a complete rewrite and redesign from ground up, was finally released. I'm not alone to say that I was extremely excited and looking forward to it. In a mere 12 hours, it became the number 1 top paid iPhone app in US Store. 

But how does it match against Twitterrific?

Frankly, I have to say that I wasn't wow by Tweetbot. Many of its functions and UI remained the same except with some animations. I know that the developer claimed that it was a redesign and rewrite from ground up but it felt like a reskinned instead. Aesthetics aside, I did not find a huge difference from Tweetbot 2. The bottom row had the same buttons including the last two which is customisable. The ability to retweet from a different account than the one you are using by long-press on the retweet button remained. The swipe left to view conversation remained. A nicer round avatar icon with some sort of a verification badge is kinda new. A photo gallery-only view instead of twitter text is kinda nice - something that Alien Blue, a Reddit client, has championed.

In contrast, Twitterrific improved on their older version by making a full screen, smooth scrolling, fun colour codings and beautiful new font types as well as new gestures based navigation. It feels new, even after iOS 7 was released. It still hold on to be my favourites at this moment.

Tweetbot 3 went the safe route and it showed.

Twitterrific 5 has beautiful colour coding
based on tweet type, new playful font type

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