Does anyone even go to the Twitter homepage anymore? It seems like more and more users are changing the origin of their tweets as Twitter desktop clients are becoming more mainstream.
There are literally dozens of desktop clients available for download… but which are the best?
To assist you in your Twittering efforts I’ve put together a list of 5 great desktop Twitter clients to help you Tweet from your desktop. If you know of a better one or don’t agree with one of my selections, leave a comment with a description and a link.
Are you currently using a Twitter desktop client? If so which app do you use? Tell us.
TweetDeck, my personal favorite, is like having a dedicated browser window just for social use. It makes going to Twitter.com almost obsolete.
TweetDeck allows you easily customize what you see in each column. Easily see Twitter updates, @ Replies, Direct Messages, Facebook status updates, Stocktwits, Twitscoop and more. A really neat feature is the ability to build groups of people you follow based on your certain parameters you set.
One of my biggest gripes with TweetDeck is how you have to go about re-arranging the columns. It should be a simple drag and drop but instead you have to use this nav at the bottom of each column. Sure it’s minor… but it is quite annoying at times.
Seesmic Desktop has been out for a few months. It was supposed to be the “answer” for TweetDeck, which took users away from Twhirl (another Seesmic desktop app).
At first glance Seesmic Desktop is a very clean looking app, a bit too “Mac” for my personal taste… but I’m sure most users love it.
Much like TweetDeck you can set columns with various information of your choosing. Probably the slickest feature Seesmic desktop features is a “drag and drop” image feature which uploads images to Twitpic for you.
For a full breakdown of all the features and a demonstration, check out the video below…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHoAcEAGsKQ
Twitterrific comes in two formats, a free (ad-supported) version or a premium version for $14.95. The two versions are essentially identical; the only differnece being that the free one has a small ad that is visible once an hour.
Some of the key features of Twitterrific include…
- Small desktop footprint
- Multiple Twiiter account support
- Number of unread tweets shown in the Dock
- Easily switch between friend and public tweets
- Keyboard shortcuts
One of the only “downfalls” is that Twitterrific is only available for the Mac. (If you consider this a downfall)
twhirl, the other desktop client by Seesmic, has been around for sometime and has a loyal fanbase.
Some of the key features for twhirl are…
- Connect to multiple Twitter and Friendfeed accounts
- Cross-post your updates to numerous social clients
- Easily find tweets mentioning our @username.
twhirl also offers extensive configuration options, some might even say too many options.
One of the drawbacks, and their reasoning for developing the multiple column client Seesmic desktop, is twhirl only features a single column layout.
DestroyTwitter is hoping to do what their name suggests, by keeping you far away from the Twitter homepage. The very compact Twitter app features several “canvases” (tabs) which update constantly.
One of the best things about DestroyTwitter is its minimal use of memory, compared to other AIR-based Twitter apps.
One of the better, if not the best, feature of DestroyTwitter is the “Rules” feature. With rules you can “exclude” certain users as well as certain keywords. Below is a snippet from DestroyTwitter about this feature…
“The Rules preferences are used for filtering the Home canvas. They allow the user to restrict the canvas to only showing particular users’ tweets. What makes it different though is ability to exclude users as well. Excluding users shows tweets from all users except the ones listed under “Exclude these users.” There is also an option to show only tweets that contain links. Users are added to each list by either clicking the plus sign or pressing the hotkey Command + Shift + I/E (Mac) or Control + shift + I/E (PC) to prompt Quick Friend Lookup where I is include and E is exclude. Users can also be added in other canvases by pressing either I or E while a tweet is selected. This adds the user who posted the selected tweet. To remove a user from a list, hold Option (Mac) or Alt (PC) and click the username. Clicking the username without holding the modifier navigates to that user’s profile. Rules are applied the next time the Home canvas refreshes. Clicking “Apply rules” applies them immediately.”
When you first look at DestroyTwitter it’s quite apparent that TweetDeck was the design inspiration, and why not mimic the best desktop client out there.
If you enjoyed this article, check out my article from last week, 5 Twitter tools to help you manage unfollowers. I’ll be posting a new “5 Twitter Tools” article every Friday, so be sure to stay tuned to murdok.
