Maha Breathes New Life Into iPhone Twitter Apps

On the initial launch, you'll see that the default color theme for Maha is black text on white background. For some, this suits them just fine. However, you'll probably want to customize the colors to give it your own personal feel. Through the Settings (accessed from the Accounts screen), you can select from a variant default theme or pick your own background, text, block, and button color. This is great because you can give the entire app a feel that is your own. It's hard to come across a Twitter app that allows you to do this.

Additionally, you can customize your font and size, as well as other display elements and services. Once you have all your stuff set up, it's time to dig in to the fun stuff.

When you view your timeline, it will be the "home" view. Simply slide the screen to the left or right to navigate the other views, including: Mentions, Direct Messages, Lists, and back Home. In each view, you'll see avatars on the left along with username (or real name, modifiable in Settings). If it's a retweet of someone, you'll see the original user's icon but with a mini-icon of the friend that retweeted them in it. There is a lack of "retweeted by ____" though, so it may be hard for those that have gotten used to that method of notification to get used to the avatar method.

If you tap a tweet, you'll be taken to a single-tweet view, but you can also swipe the screen to access User Profile, User Timeline, Follower, Following, Favorites, Lists, and then back to the tweet. In the single-tweet view, you can reply, retweet (using the new and old "RT" method), and favorite from the buttons along the bottom. To go back to your main timeline, simply tap that large arrow button at the top left. You'll "flip" back, kind of just like on a WP7.

Now, a Twitter app would be kind of tedious to use if you have to tap a tweet to view it, and then reply or retweet it from there. It's unnecessary taps, and wasted time. But Maha has another way to do all that without needing to view an individual tweet - simply tap and hold on a tweet in the timeline to bring up a menu. From here, you can reply, retweet, quote tweet, or favorite right from the timeline.

When you compose a tweet using the bottom Compose button, you get the basics - location, "recent users" (which is just everyone you have tweeted before so you can search for someone you want to @), and media. You can take a new photo or import from your device Photo Library.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to support video uploads yet, which I'm not sure why. It seems like a standard that should be included in all Twitter clients nowadays.

There is a nifty thing with the photo uploader though - if you want to see the images that you inserted in to a tweet, you can tap the red notification on the camera icon to view thumbnails of your images. Pretty nifty in those moments when you may want to recall the images to put a witty description.

Drafts are supported, so if you are in the middle of composing a tweet and need to go back, you can do so and save the tweet for later.

You'll likely come across errors on Twitter from any app. Maha has the best way to handle these error messages that I've seen. If there is an error, you'll see a yellow exclamation. Tapping this will allow you to view all the errors with an explanation of what went wrong, and whether to try again or cancel. This is a great little nifty feature.

If you're a fan of pull-to-refresh, you'll probably be disappointed because you won't find it in Maha. Instead, you'll have to make do with the refresh button along the bottom. Looking for a topic or like to look at the ridiculous trending topics of Twitter? The magnifying glass icon along the bottom of the main timeline view will bring you to the Search and Trending Topics section.

While you can set Maha to retrieve tweets automatically at an interval that you set, chances are that you'll probably use that manual refresh button at some point.

This is possibly where my disappointment is - when I refresh, or even when the app refreshes, I get no real indication that it is fetching data. Because of the custom status bar at the top with the connection type and the time, I don't see a spinner like I do in the regular status bar. This makes it look like the app isn't doing anything when it is pulling in new data. The only indication you'll get of anything new is with a very subtle glow around the text where there is something new.

I'm not sure if the developer made it this way to not interfere with the app's design, because that's one reason she left out pull-to-refresh. But it would really help if the user is able to see and make sure that the app is actually getting data. Even with a little audio notification, like in Tweetbot.

Another thing I noticed is that there will be a line to indicate when there was a significant gap between tweets, but so far, I cannot find a way to load the tweets that are in this gap. For those that like to catch up on tweets they've missed overnight, this can be a dealbreaker. I hope that the developer can implement a way to load up these tweets in a future update, because many people, including myself, like to catch up on what they've missed from time-to-time.

Landscape mode. Those that are landscape fans will surely be disappointed to know that this app does not support landscape. Not sure if the design would make it work, but this should definitely be implemented. After all, Tweetbot did get a lot of backlash for not supporting this "simple" feature.

Aside from the flaws, Maha is a beautiful and well-designed Twitter app for your iPhone and iPod Touch. It's relatively fast, and the animations are smooth. It's definitely a unique interface that allows tons of customization options for the user. It definitely gives that WP7 feel to your iPhone.

If you're looking for a Twitter app that is totally unique, then give Maha a try.