Twitter

Twitterrific update with iOS 9 and iPad multitasking support, new features and improvements

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 23, 2015

Twitterrific 5, The Iconfactory's freemium Twitter client for iOS and OS X platforms, has received its iOS 9-focused update this morning.

The app is now fully optimized for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices running iOS 9 and supports new Slide Over and Split View multitasking modes on compatible iPads. If you own an iPad Air 2 or an iPad mini 4, you can now run Twitterrific and another app side-by-side in iOS 9's new Split View mode.

This is a great feature as you can now pin Twitterrific on the right and configure it to use Safari as your browser instead of in-app. In addition to iOS 9-specific support, this edition of Twitterrific includes other changes and improvements listed further below.

Twitter adds Quick Reply to iOS app (this time for real!) and other enhancements

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 22, 2015

A Twitter update last week was supposed to make the mobile iPhone and iPad app play nice with iOS 9's new text-based replies that are now available to third-party apps directly from notification banners, except it didn't.

Tuesday, the micro-blogging startup issued a new version of the iOS client which fixes last week's botched update.

Now iOS 9 users of Twitter's mobile app can take advantage of full support for the Quick Reply feature from push notifications, the ability to access muted and blocked accounts in Settings and more.

Twitter: one of the first apps to embed Quick Reply within notifications on iOS 9

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 16, 2015

One of the new features of iOS 9 that Apple hasn't actively advertised has the tremendous potential to be actively used on an everyday basis by the vast majority of users: it at last permits third-party developers to implement Quick Reply functionality within banner alerts, the Notification Center and notifications shown on the Lock screen.

Twitter is one of the first applications out of the gate to have readily adopted this feature in its most recent update that just hit the App Store. And if you own an iPad with iOS 9, you can now use Twitter in iOS 9's new side-by-side multitasking mode.

People are reporting on Twitter that Quick Reply is broken in this update and a few members of our team were able to independently confirm this.

Google and Twitter target Facebook’s Instant Articles with ‘accelerated mobile pages’

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 11, 2015

Internet giant Google and the micro-blogging platform Twitter have joined forces as they gear up to launch their own take on Facebook's quick-loading Instant Articles for mobile users, according to Peter Kafka and Mark Bergen of Re/code.

Launching this fall with a small group of publishers, these articles should appear on mobile phones almost instantaneously without the annoyingly long loading times.

Twitter for iPad gets an Auto Layout-inspired responsive design

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated April 30, 2018

It's been a long time coming, but Twitter for iPad is no longer the outdated red-headed-stepchild that it once was. This evening, Twitter pushed an update to the official Twitter app, along with a blog post entitled: Building a more unified Twitter for iOS.

In the blog post, the folks at Twitter explain the design philosophy behind the new iPad app. "Starting today," the post explains, "iPad users will be able to create and see revamped quote Tweets, explore trending topics in search, visit product and place pages, and more."

This is accomplished by making Twitter a universal app, and incorporating adaptive UI, a methodology inspired by Apple's Auto Layout system, which allows for a responsive design that lets apps adapt to the size of the current device.

Apple rolls out brand new Twitter account dedicated to App Store games

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 3, 2015

The App Store has been on Twitter since September 2009 but as of today, a new curated Twitter account dedicated to highlighting the App Store games is available as well. It's now yet known whether gaming-related tweets will now be exclusively posted on @AppStoreGames alone or retweeted on @AppStore but it's an encouraging sign of Apple's mobile gaming prowess.

“Embrace the future of gaming,” reads the account's bioline. “Straight from our Games Editors.”

Twitterrific for iOS improves accessibility, tag autocompletion, muting, translation and more

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 1, 2015

Twitterrific, The Iconfactory's freemium Twitter client for the iPhone and iPad, was refreshed in the App Store this morning with a bevy of enhancements, including improvements to username and hash tag autocompletion, a feature introduced in Twitterrific's previous update.

Among other changes, this edition of Twitterrific includes some new quick actions, support for quoted tweets in muffle and muting rules and much more.

Latest Vine update brings Snap to Beat feature and new audio discovery tools

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Twitter-owned Vine has rolled out two major new features to its mobile app which are aimed at improving audio discovery and help “bring the magic of perfect-looping music to everyone.”

For starters, a brand new Snap to Beat feature lets you create Vines with With seamless audio looping. And in an effort to make music a core part of Vine, users can now take advantage of enhancements like a new Featured Tracks section and another new feature that allows them to find out what they're listening to as they watch Vines.

Easily post to Twitter and Facebook from your Apple Watch with Social Action

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 1, 2018

Social Action is a new app that allows you to easily and quickly update your Facebook status or post to Twitter directly from your Apple Watch.

Twitter removes 140-character limit from Direct Messages

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 28, 2018

Two months into the announcement that it would remove the archaic 140-character limit from Direct Messages, Twitter today officially made the move in the hope of taking on popular instant messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger, Skype, iMessage and others.

For people who use Direct Messages to communicate with their Twitter followers privately, this change couldn't have come sooner because they can now chat on in a single Direct Message without restrictions and “likely still have some characters left over.”

Facebook said to be developing Twitter-like app for breaking news

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

Facebook is working on a standalone mobile news applications, Business Insider reported on Tuesday. The site says the app looks similar to Twitter, in that it will allow publications to blast short, 100 character push notifications to their "followers" when they have urgent news to share.

"Business Insider has reviewed screenshots of the new product and spoken to a source who has been playing around with the Facebook for Business platform." The outlet believes the app is part of Facebook for Business, but different than the Facebook at Work initiative we saw last year.

Twitter testing out dedicated News tab in mobile apps

Cody Lee ∙ August 3, 2015

Twitter is experimenting with a new "Featured News" tab in its mobile apps, reports BuzzFeed. The tab surfaces trending news items, which the social network hopes will keep users engaged.

"We're experimenting with a news experience on iOS and Android," a Twitter spokesperson told the publication. "We are continuing to explore new ways to surface the best content to users."