It is with equal parts excitement and frustration that I let you know that the days of Android being TweetDeck-deficient are numbered, and that number is small. Excitement because TweetDeck is by far my favorite social media client on any platform, and frustration because I was given early access to a beta client, and it won’t run on my Android 1.6 phone. (I know, I know. I’ll update one of these days!)
The feature list they sent along is outstanding though. This is not simply a port of the existing iPhone/iPad client. This is an entirely new direction for TweetDeck, one that I can’t wait to get my hands on. Here’s the short list:
- A blended “Home” column that by default includes updates from Twitter, Buzz, Facebook and Foursquare, if you have accounts on those services.
- A new “Me” column that includes Twitter @ mentions to you, Facebook comments and likes on your updates, and Buzz comments on your content.
- Twitter direct messages are a default column.
- Unread indicators so you can see at a glance what updates you’ve read and what you haven’t.
- Update Detail Views, which open when you click on an update and provide additional relevant information tuned to the service the update came from.
- Foursquare detailed views are tailored to the venue the update came from.
- Map view for geotagged tweets and Foursquare venues.
- A new multi-service Compose screen which defaults to twitter and gives you quick access to turn on your other services.
- New contacts view with quick slots for up to 12 friends you talk to a lot.
There’s more, but it’s painful to write all this and not be able to try it out. But don’t worry, the public beta period begins very soon, if it hasn’t already begun by the time you read this. You’ll be able to see for yourself… hopefully! If you do get it working, let me know in the comments.
Thanks Patrick, yes, there was a fake one on the Android Market, but the one we talk about here is the genuine official Android app, direct from TweetDeck.
Just so you guys know….if you don’t already. The TweetDeck app was a fake. Since when does TweetDeck charge for their apps? More about on TweetDeck’s official twitter page: http://twitter.com/TweetDeck/status/21094810139
This would be some awesome feedback for the TweetDeck developers, hope you guys are contacting them!
Just downloaded it to my rooted and ROM’d (Running 2.2) G1 and so far I think I might like it. I like having the ability to check into Foursquare venues through my Twitter client and seeing Facebook updates in the Twitter timeline is good while on the go since alot of my family use FB but don’t Twitter. It also handles multiple Twitter accounts, something that has been lacking on many Android clients. Obviously this is just a Beta and things are sure to change, but so far I like where it’s going. I do wish there were some options for changing the font size and maybe the colors of the different services’ updates. I’ll let you know more as i try it out more, but as of right now I intend to keep the Beta around for a while.
TweetDeck for Android doesn’t have any features I want. I really wanted something that by default would setup the same columns that I have on the desktop TweetDeck client and also be able to sync read/unread status between the two. Based on the screenshots of only seeing 4 updates on the screen, my other Twitter Android clients show 6-7. I’ll be holding off for awhile to see if it gets any features I would use before downloading it.
That’s fair, I can understand it. It does sound like this client represents the future of all TweetDeck builds though, even the desktop in time.