By Michael Muchmore The Windows Phone OS has built-in twitter support: its People app lets you connect to your social microblogging account and see updates and contacts. But for app richer experience—and the experience designed by the service's creator, the official Twitter app is hard to beat. The only other Twitter app in the Windows Phone store worthy of comparison is Rowi, which does offer full functionality and maybe even more control than the official Twitter app, but it's not free without ads, and its design isn't as polished as the from-the-source microblogging app, though that may be a matter of taste. Let's take a look at using the excellent official app.
Install
I tested the app on a Samsung ATIV Odyssey. You can get the Twitter app from the Windows Store, remotely install it from the Web, or have a text message sent to the phone with an installation link. On first run, you'll be asked to sign in to an existing account or you can create a new one from a link at the bottom of this page.
Before you can first view your tweet feed, you have to decide whether to allow the app to see your location. Then you'll have to make a similar decision about notifications. It probably makes sense to OK both of these options, to get the full mobile experience.
You can connect the Windows Phone Twitter app to multiple accounts, just as you can with other platform versions and apps. Switching between accounts is a simple matter of tapping-and-holding on your user name at the top, or a choice from the … menu on your Profile tab.
Interface
The Twitter for Windows Phone app bears a strong resemblance to the official mobile clients for other platforms—Android and iOS. Four big clear buttons grace the top: Home, @, #, and Profile You can swipe through these four "modes" rather than having to tap the buttons, just as you can in Rowi. The buttons show dots below if new messages are awaiting, and in yet another nice interface touch, the button for the mode you're currently in lights up blue.
One advantage of the official twitter app over Rowi is that it lets you watch Vine videos right inside the app, without going out to a Web browser the way Rowi needs to do. Another trick Rowi can't match is the Twitter app's ability to translate foreign-language tweets on the fly. I followed a Spanish-speaking user, and when I tapped on a tweet to view it full-screen, the English translation appeared below the original tweet without my having to do anything. Rowi does offer to translate with Bing, too, but it's a deeper … menu choice.
Another option that you may want to set up is to let Twitter show status on your phone's lock screen. A button link from the Settings page takes you to Windows Phone settings where you can add Twitter as a "quick status" source. For some reason, though, after I did this, I didn't see the notifications on my phone's lock screen. Nor did I see the number of waiting tweets on the app's tile. I'll attribute this to OS version, the app is officially for WP7, but I'm running on WP8. I've contacted support and will update this review based on the response.
Tweeting, Retweeting, and More
Just as with the Web version, you can reply, retweet, and favorite any tweet after you tap into the tweet details. The … menu offers copy tweet, copy link to tweet, mail tweet, text tweet, and reply with message. I liked that the details view of a tweet shows the whole conversations, before and after the tweet you're viewing, as well as any photo included in the tweet.
When you tap the compose tweet button at the bottom of any of the app's four main pages, you'll get a familiar question, like "What's happening?" or "What's on your mind?" You'll also be able to take a picture with the camera's phone or add one from your camera roll. I couldn't, however, shoot a video for inclusion in my tweet. Happily, the app also let me delete a tweet I regretted.
From either app, I could change my profile images, but a subtle difference showed up: The official Twitter app showed my profile picture and background image with the same layout you see online, while Rowi showed the profile picture at the left—a minor difference, but one that illustrates the more standard design of the official app. In its favor, Rowi does offer more fine-grain options, such as text size, tile color order of tweets, and how many tweets to load how often. But for most users, the official client's settings are all that's needed.
Direct messaging is also well-handled by the Twitter app: When you start typing a recipient's name, matching contacts drop down from the text box. You can see your list of previous conversations. As an aside, I don't really understand why Twitter has to limit this messaging to 140 characters, unlike any other messaging system on the planet: It makes sense for tweets that would fill up followers' feeds, but not for one-on-one messaging.
The Meat of the Tweet
As probably makes sense, the official Twitter client for Windows Phone lets you engage in the social microblogging network in just about every way you'd want to. It may lack some customizability and settings of Rowi, but, for most Tweeps, the standard app is the best choice. Its ability to show more in the tweet details view trumps Rowi's other advantages, as does its ad-free view in the free version. Hence, Twitter for Windows Phone is our Editors' Choice among Windows Phone Twitter apps.
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