A review of the new Tweetie for Mac app, and how it can be improved.

Tweetie for Mac was released today. While the stoners are out celebrating 4/20 with a blunt, I’m downloading a Twitter client. That’s how I roll, folks.

Anyhow, let’s first just say that Tweetie is very pretty. Though, that’s as much of a compliment to an application as it is to an American Idol contestant from Paula after they’ve just destroyed a song.

In the Twittersphere, it’s being compared to Twhirl, TweetDeck, Seesmic Desktop, Nambu and DestroyTwitter. I was persoanlly hoping it would be the lovechild of Twhirl and TweetDeck.

So let’s take a gander at Tweetie for Mac. What makes it original? What makes it worth $15 bucks (soon to be $20)?

As much as it pains me to say so, pretty much nothing (so far). The paid version of this app removes ads, it doesn’t add any extra features, which I’d gladly pay for. So far, I haven’t gotten any ads (though I’m sure that will get fixed soon enough).

I’m on the side of paying for a product that you actually like, to support the company that makes great apps.

However, I paid for my iPhone app. It works great, I love Tweetie for iPhone.

Unfortunately, Tweetie for Mac doesn’t replace my current Twitter clients. At this moment in time, I can’t add multiple accounts, not because the functionality isn’t there, but because it’s broken.

When it’s fixed, it might just replace Twhirl, but not TweetDeck.

Update: Someone just posted on why this isn’t working and how to fix it yourself (worked for me):

“If you are having problems adding a second account to Tweetie for Mac, the solution is very simple. For some reason when you enter your name and password and then press enter, the password is erased making it unable to authenticate your information. So, the only thing you need to do is after entering your information you will place your cursor on the username field before pressing the add account. And that’s it, now you are able to add all your accounts!” (via randrambles.com)

Another error I’ve come across is the “limit exceeded” error, which I’ve gotten several times since I installed. As of now, Tweetie hasn’t updated in 18 minutes. All I get is this message:

Work it out Tweetie, work it out.

I understand they launched, oh, TODAY, so I won’t dwell on bugs.

So rather than hash it all out in a long boring post, here are the features that would make Tweetie for Mac worth $15, not just in my personal opinion, but also from what I gather from the feedback I’ve heard on Tweetie for Mac so far.

1. Groups - Sometimes you don’t want to read everyone’s tweets. Sometimes you’re just courtious. People with thousands of followers (not me) can’t afford to use Twitter if they have no way to filter. TweetDeck does this fairly well (though, I’ve been unable to add certain people to my “People I Actually Read” feed due to some glitch).

2. Trends - A lot of people want “trends”. Some people use them to decide what they’ll blog about, some use them to figure out what hashtags to use, and some just use them to Twitter about, in order to show up on the timeline. Either way, “search” (which Tweetie for Mac offers) doesn’t cut it.

3. Delete a Tweet - My biggest pet peeve with Twitter applications is when the developer chooses not to include basic Twitter functionality. If I accidentally send a tweet, my thumb hits the enter button, or I just don’t proofread well enough, I WANT TO DELETE IT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. Asking me to log into Twitter.com to delete it won’t remove it quickly enough to go unnoticed by my followers. Twhirl makes it simple:

4. Favorite a Tweet - With that said, I’d really like the little star symbol. Twhirl gives you a little star up in the right hand corner of every Tweet. Again, simple. In Tweetie for Mac you right-click (a feature I only discovered moments ago).

5. Growl Support - Tweetie for Mac seems to have been designed to reflect something of an IM client, with it’s neat feature for displaying whole conversations. So it’s a little strange to me (and apparently to many others who have commented about it on Twitter) that they didn’t include Growl support, which lets you know when you have new Tweets.

6. More prominent 140-character count - This is just a simple form over function flaw. Sure, that tiny faded character limit sure is cute, but I want to see, pretty immediately, whether I am over my 140 character limit. I mean, 140 characters is the central concept behind Twitter.

Tweetie for Mac vs. Twitter.com

7. Alerts - When someone mentions you, your brand, or something you want to respond to, I’d love a notification, or a separate feed to check on a regular basis. This would be, per Twitter account of course, something I’ve seen mentioned several times in the Tweetie for Mac discussions.

8. A little more direction - I love how sleek and clean Tweetie for Mac is, don’t get me wrong, but a little “text over icon” hover would be great. If I’m recommending Twitter apps to my friends new to Twitter, I wouldn’t recommend this app simply because it’s not entirely easy to figure out at first glance (though I think that’s what they were going for).

9. Basic functions - I’ve been at this for an hour or so, and I still can’t figure out how to DM someone without manually going to File > Direct Message or opening their profile and clicking on the “wheel icon” to message them. I also haven’t discovered how to retweet or even follow someone within Tweetie for Mac. If this exists, we need to be able to do this from the main window. Update: Right-click. Yeah, I didn’t see that one coming.

10. Refresh - I’m a manic refresher. When I post a tweet, I want to make sure it went through, so I can walk away, or get back to whatever else I was doing. Am I missing something, or do you really have to wait until Tweetie for Mac has refreshed the entire feed to see your own? In other apps, it shows up immediately.

I still have love for Tweetie though, and there are some things that Tweetie for Mac does VERY well.

Conversations - The ability to read an entire conversation, like an IM, is wonderful.

Profiles - In Tweetie for Mac, you can see not just a basic profile, but a persons most recent Tweets, perfect.

Design - Despite the few things I mentioned, Tweetie for Mac is very pretty, the ads (which are now showing up by the way) are unobtrusive at the top, and it loads quickly.

Unfortunately, Tweetie for Mac seems to only be ideal for those who have a personal account, only following those who they want to read about, and who have been using Twitter long enough to figure the app out pretty quickly. I’m not sure those three things always go together.

So, what are your gripes about Tweetie for Mac? What would you need to see added before paying $15 or $20 is worth it to you?