Review
AIR-based Twitter application
No, this isn’t a call to wipe Twitter out of existence, which is what the word destroy usually means. DestroyTwitter is a Twitter application that works on Mac, Windows, and Linux via Adobe’s AIR environment. Okay, before we go any further, I’d like to note that calling your company DestroyToday may be unique but it doesn’t easily endear yourself to people you’re trying to appeal to. Caling your app DestroyTwitter is just as unwise so I’m going to call it DT from now on.
Now it’s been well documented that I’m not a fan of AIR apps moreso because AIR creates a non-native environment that empowers developers to deviate from how applications are meant to work in specific platforms. Because they don’t have to conform to user interface and OS interactivity guidelines, we often end up with AIR apps that don’t work as expected because the developers either aren’t familiar with how those platforms work or think that they understood them well enough that having OS specific operations or commands would result in a flawed cross-platform application.
I’ve tried three other AIR-based Twitter apps before and none of them impressed me. They all did alright and have their own respective differentiating features but each of them simply failed to stand out and declare itself better overall than the others. DT however, took me by surprise. Here was an app whose name is questionable but works really, really well and it just needs a little polish to be great.
On Windows and Linux, interface consistency is not something that is considered crucial but Mac users are much more demanding and apps have to get it right to earn attention.
On the surface
The premiere Twitter application for the Mac is Twitterrific. It’s simple, it works really well, has most of the features in Twitter, puts all the replies and direct messages into one stream along with the rest of the tweets for a more practical reading. DT takes a different approach. Like Tweetie for the iPhone, DT attempts to provide just about everything Twitter offers including access to Twitter search which is not even accessible from Twitter’s main website.
This single-window application has several sections that it calls canvases and each canvas is labeled accordingly to its purpose. It even has a nifty animation transition when you switch between them. You’ve got your home canvas, replies, favorites (which for some reason the developer decided to call saved), direct message inbox and sent canvas all on top of the window along with the search tab.
The bottom of the window lets you access your preferences, your profile, and profiles of other users. An interesting addition is the Away tab which freezes updates when you click on it so the timeline remains as it is when you’re away.
What’s wonderful about DT is that the tabs are actually labeled with names instead of icons which makes interaction and selection a lot easier than if it has used icons. Sure, it could use icons and have tooltips to show what each icon mean but it’s much easier to just have them labeled properly. The only exception is the Tweet tab which is represented by a speech bubble icon. On the other hand, you could argue it’s a cop out because icons have to be well made to convey their meanings properly or it will just confuse the user.
Unlike Mail, DT doesn’t show the number of unread messages until you actually open each canvas but the text labels of each respective canvas will turn blue whenever there’s a new item.
On the compose box, there are several options that enhances your tweeting experience. The character count is pretty much a basic requirement of all Twitter apps but DT also offers TwitPic access for posting images, TweetShrink to shorten tweets that are slightly longer than 140 characters, and URL shortener via is.gd that lets you shorten URL before sending the tweet, saving you precious characters
Inconsistencies
There’s a little quirk I have with the labels though. As mentioned earlier, Jonnie Hallman, the developer, seems to have his own preference in the app’s naming convention. This would have been fine if it was a standalone app that operates within its own environment but DT runs the Twitter environment which already has its own naming conventions.
Twitter allows its users to mark a tweet with a star. On the website this is done by hovering the mouse pointer over a particular tweet and selecting the blank star icon that appears to its right. Twitter calls this Favorite. Other apps also call it Favorite. Why DT calls it Saved, who knows.
Instead of Inbox, it has Messages. The problem with calling it Messages is that every tweet posted is technicaly message so in the bigger picture, it makes little sense. Twitter users are already familiar with the term direct message or directs. Why not use those?
Just to add to its inconsistencies, the People tab brings up a canvas titled User. That’s the only tab whose titles don’t match.
And then there’s the shortcuts. Some actions require the Command key modifier while others are simple one key action. Because this is a feature-rich app, assigning shortcuts is quite clearly not an easy task.
Shortcuts
Unlike other Twitter AIR apps, DT has a handy collection of built in keyboard shortcuts. In Twitterrific, Command+1 faves a tweet, while command+2 and command+D are respectivey assigned to compose a reply or a direct message. The same cannot be applied in this case.
Each top-side canvas has been assigned a shortcut from Command+1 to Command+6. For the bottom side, hitting Command+, opens the Preferences canvas and Command+T to open the compose box. Account and People canvases have no shortcut access.
When a message is selected, hitting R or M will bring up the compose box to reply to that particular message. Press R to publicly reply, press M to compose a direct message. To save a tweet as favorite, press S.
Others
DT works as a single window, single column application. However there’s an option to enlarge its window so three canvases would be visible at any one time. While this option would remind many people of TweetDeck, DT doesn’t support groupings so it cannot have aditional canvases.
As it stands, the application window is vertically but not horizontally adjustable and it somehow is able to snap itself to the bottom or top of the screen when positioned to the left of the screen but not anywhere else. Move the window to the middle or to the right and it will refuse to snap.
The arrow slider to the right of the window does not seem to be adjustable at this point. By that I mean clicking on a space above or below the slider will pull the slider to that particular position instead of one screen at a time. For that you’ll need to use Page Up (fn+Up arrow) or Page Down (fn+Down arrow) keys
If the fonts are too small, it can be enlarged through the Preferences canvas.
A few other issues that irritate me slightly include search terms that cannot be stored or saved into the app. To be fair, this is something that even Twhirl has only had it added in the last few weeks.
Being an AIR app, it doesn’t seem to respect commands regarding manually moving Spaces. When you open an AIR app in one space, you cannot move that app to another space unles you quit the app and reopen it or have it manually moved via Spaces Preferences.
Unlike Twhirl and Twitterrific, DT doesn’t fetch the real names of each Twitter account. I like seeing a Twitter user’s real name or whatever names they put on those fields and not having those make things a little less enjoyable.
Since Twitter changed the way applications can fetch content from 200 tweets per hour to 100 fetch requests per hour, having separate requests for home stream, replies, search, and direct messages even though most of the replies show up in home canvas as well restricts the stream updates even further.
My Advice
DT is an app that despite its inconsistencies, does what a lot of frequent Twitter users are looking for in an application. Because the inconsistencies are mostly cosmetic, it would be a shame not to try this app out even if you are already in your comfort zone with other apps.
While Twhirl has long been my preferred Twitter AIR app thanks to its compactness, DT implements that concept in a much more presentable and sleeker package and as much as I enjoy using Twitterrific, I have to say DT is one serious contender in the market. I don’t know if I’m ready to switch but it certainly has become my number one alternate.
Pros
Compact, adjustable tabbed interface
Keyboard shortcuts available
Support for Twitpic and Tweetshrink
Built in search
Edit user profile
Look up user profiles
Adjustable fetch request frequencies
Shows original tweet when composing reply and direct message
More memory efficient than other AIR apps
Shorten URL before sending
Cons
Its name
Inconsistent interterface elements
Cannot save search terms
No groups
Needs AIR environment
No real names of users
Separate fetch requests
Tested on
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