Review: Twinkle

Overview

"Twinkle, twinkle little app, posting tweets is now a snap." The message on the Tapulous site is clear -- Twinkle aspires to be the #1 Twitter client in the world. But the title does not come uncontested.

The incumbent competing service, Twitterific, took an early lead in the iPhone Tweetability Wars by snagging the prestigious Apple Design Award last month. This came as no surprise, being that the developers behind the project were none other than the talented design team at The Iconfactory. Still, the gap widened last Thursday when Twitterific launched in tandem with the App Store -- no Twinkle in sight. But Twitterific is not a program without flaws: no public or nearby displays, issues viewing/taking pictures, and ADVERTISEMENTS on the free version, to name a few, leaving the door open for a contender... Enter Twinkle.

Following up on the success of Tap Tap Revenge (originally a jailbroken app called Tap Tap Revolution that was purchased from its original developer) which is currently the #1 free app in iTunes, the folks at Tapulous just released their native incantation of Twinkle a few hours ago.

Functionality

There are two main ways to use Twinkle: with Twitter and without. You see, Twinkle provides its own social network, complete with a profile, username, and picture unique from your Twitter account. Twinkle is a standalone location based - social networking - messaging system. From the 'Home' screen you can view your messages (Twinkles?) and those of other Twinkle members that you're following. 'Messages' displays the private messages you've sent/received from other members, functionality that's allowed once you begin following someone. The coolest part of Twinkle, hands-down, is the 'Nearby' feature -- displaying Twinkles that have been sent within X number of miles (where X is definable by you). Click the "Within X Miles" button at the top-center and you'll be prompted by the handy Apple UI scroll-wheel to select from 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, and 1000 miles, in addition to Everywhere. Upon setting, Twinkles will auto-populate your screen, displayed by most recent and including the distance in miles away.

Under 'Settings' you'll be able to toggle your location and sound settings, as well as link your Twitter account (under 'Identity'). It appears that other services will sync with Twinkle in the future, though Twitter compatibility is the only platform available at launch. Upon filling in your Twitter account info, you'll now be pushing Tweets & Twinkles to both networks. You can send messages from any main screen other than 'Settings' by pressing the notepad button located in the upper-right corner. Type in a message, check or uncheck the included location beneath, and attach a picture if you'd like (you can take a new pic or select an existing one).

Pictures sent to other Twinkle members appear in the actual program, while users on other clients will get a web-link to the photo. Double-tapping on a Twinkle sends you to the 'Message' details page, where you can follow/unfollow, send a PM (if you're following), and see their past updates.

Review

Twinkle is quite the program. After seeing some key functionality lacking in Twitterific, and having experience with Twinkles jailbroken version, I was truly excited for this release. The interface, though not as high-design as Twitterific's, but maintains elegance through simplicity. This point really hits home when you consider that Twinkle feels like it supports more features & functionality despite its minimalist UI. On the other side you have Twitterific, which provides pop-ups on most screens just so users can figure out how to get around. But the real killer feature here is the 'Nearby' button. The Apple iPhone was MEANT for this sorta thing, and LBS (location based services) are definitely the future of social networking. The big downer for me, at least initially, was the Twinkle-only network idea. Having to maintain two accounts (for Twitter too) and figure out what I was being displayed and pushing out to others became a little mind-boggling, especially when Twitter went down while I was testing things out. But then I realized, if Twinkle was completely dependent on Twitter, and Twitter went down, where would it be? Completely nowhere like Twitterific was when I launched it -- all outdated info and nothing to do. With Twinkle I still had tons of usability and people to talk to... and let's be realistic, with Twitter's track-record, it's no wonder Twinkle is hedging its bets by allowing their own network AND keeping the 'Identity' option open to syncing with other platforms.

Not completely without fault, the program was a little buggy in its initial state. It crashed a couple times, I received a few server errors (probably Twitter related), and Twinkle froze on me once. Though I'm sure the good folks at Tapulous are working on this as I type... UPDATE: 7/18 2:50pm PST, a new message from TwinkleKing of Tapulous acknowledges the problems, stating: "We are thrilled that you all love Twinkle. We are in the middle of dealing with Twitter problems and rolling out our infrastructure. Should be not more than a couple of hours. Stay tuned!"

Summary

Well thought out, well executed, and thinking about the big picture. I'm not quite sure if Twitterific can take this all the way to a decision, I'm saying KO by Twinkle in 6.

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