With the highly anticipated release of the T-Mobile G1 happening yesterday, new apps for Google’s Android platform are pouring in. Android itself was released as Open Source, which will hopefully allow developers to create higher quality applications. The Twitter application that’s getting the most publicity is called Twidroid, which is either a mashup of Twitter and Android or Twitter and steroid (joke).
Following along with Twitter’s Twidroid related stream we’ll find pages upon pages of tweets. The general consensus is that it’s a work in progress. Highlighting some of the more helpful (and funny tweets)…
Twitroid is more crash prone than a whiskey-drunk 16 year old in a Subaru ( from @mat )
twitroid is pretty but almost unusable at this point (from @bdogg64 )
Snap! Just had Twitroid crash about 15 seconds after trying it ( from @peterrojas )
Most users who are complaining are saying that the application is very crash-prone. The other issue some people are having is related to taking photos that don’t get rotated when they were supposed to. I haven’t seen any tweets about general slowness or performance issues yet. If you’re having issues with Twidroid, you can send feedback to mail [at] twitroid.com.
Being that this is the first Twitter app on a completely new platform, most people will let the flaws of Twidroid slide. I’m sure the devs would like the app to be perfect, but quality products take time to build. The first production release of Twidroid is scheduled for Monday, October 27. All builds before then were tested on emulation software, which pales in comparison to real-world testing.
Features
Twidroid sports the basic features you’d expect from a mobile Twitter application, but can also do photos pretty easily. Just click the camera button, shoot your photo, and it’ll upload it to photroid, the exclusive photo hosting service for Twidroid users. Type your text before or after the automatically inserted photo URL and send your tweet.
Demo
You can view a 50 second demo of Twidroid here.
Screenshots
Screenshots are surprisingly hard to find. There are some official screenshots posted on Twidroid’s site. If you’ve got some that you’re willing to share, send them to tips [at] microblink.com.
Found on ZDNet’s blog:
From Twidroid.com
Download Squad also has a gallery of screenshots.
Accounts to Follow
@twidroid, @thomas, @zimmermann
Other Android Twitter Apps to Watch
There are actually three other Twitter apps in development for Android, as shown here - TwitterDroid, Trak, and one that isn’t really named, by Davanum Srinivas.
Rob is one of the founders of Microblink. His interests include how people are using microblogs and the community growing around them.
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“Twitroid is more crash prone than a whiskey-drunk 16 year old in a Subaru ( from @mat )”
@mat’s comment has to be one of the funniest first impressions of an app I’ve ever seen. Thanks for taking a closer look at Twitroid’s first release.
I’m actually somewhat disappointed now that I have an iPhone and not a G1, but eventually I’m sure I’ll get to play with one.
What I like about Twitroid from the screenshots captured so far is that even though are plenty of mobile apps for Twitter already, Twitroid has still come up with a fresh interface and put priority on functions others haven’t.
Having basic functions like tweeting, viewing DMs, refreshing and modifying settings occupy large buttons in the interface keep things simple for ease of use. Making the search bar prominent at the top encourages users to use it, something even the web interface for Twitter doesn’t do (yet). I also love the inclusion of the photo icon for quick uploads to Photroid, something only a few mobile clients have done with TwitPic.
With the impending official release next week, I’ll be excited to see more screenshots and feedback on the app.
we had to develop the app on an emulator until yesterday and are committed to fix all major bugs now that couldn’t be reproduced in a software-only environment. i’ve posted crash warnings several times so only complaining about stability without giving feedback is only counterproductive for everyone. — thanks
@thomas I think you’ll find that we (Microblink) are committed to providing constructive feedback. It seems that some (as quoted above) have been less helpful, but we look forward to the future development of the app.
Thanks for stopping by.
@thomas
Thanks for coming by, it’s always nice to have an application developer checking out our articles and making comments.
I agree that complaining without leaving feedback doesn’t do any good. As a developer, I can understand the importance of leaving feedback. Do you have a preferred method that we can pass along to our readers?
Wow. I didn’t expect to see my twitter post about twitroid up here but I’ll comment on what thomas said. I saw the crash warnings and I understand that its a work in progress. That doesn’t mean I can’t say the app is buggy when I try it out. My twitter was “almost unusable” not completely.
Here is my feedback.
1. Nice application… let me say that first. I’m glad you’re working on it.
2. When I open up the keyboard, sometimes twitroid takes me to to the setup screen to enter my username and password.
3. It refreshes the tweets everytime I open the keyboard whether I hit refresh or not.
3. It doesn’t handle network errors very gracefully.
4. Sometimes error messages popup about network errors and json.
Other than requesting new features, thats all I have for now. I hope I didn’t come across the wrong way because I know development takes time. I look forward to the next release on Monday.
actually i’m already collecting reports from several sources, incl. google alerts;) if you drop us a line at mail@twitroid.com we’d be happy. thanks guys