Here are some thoughts after playing with Twitter 4.0 for iPhone:
- The new look is very clean. The tweets are on little sheets that sit above a textured background. I like this, as the old app felt really cluttered to me.
- The swipe feature from Tweetie 2.0 is gone. In fact, this new app feels nothing like Tweetie.
- That said, this new app feels fast. Moving between tweets and other screens involves no waiting on my iPhone 4.
- The compose button has a little feather on it. Adorable.
- The tabs across the bottom include Home, Connect, Discover and Me. Direct Messages are now buried under the Me tab.
- The Discover tab is pretty useless for me. It includes search, Stories, trends (including promoted ones), recommendations on who to follow and more. Seriously, I’m never going to use most of this stuff.
All in all, it’s clear to me that Twitter is trying to steer people toward areas of the service where things like promoted trends and stories can be seen easily. While that’s understandable, I really am not a fan of it taking up so much room in the iPhone app. With no way to re-arrange the default tabs across the bottom, I’m stuck with something I don’t want — Discovery — and am left with something I need — Direct Messages — too far away.
I’m sticking with Tweetbot on my iPhone.
Update: Chris Herbert pointed out that the Me tab has a few tricks hidden away.