It's Already Possible To Tweet "Via iOS" In iOS 5
by Joe White
June 23, 2011
A couple of days ago, Jake Behrens (an Apple developer) send out a tweet that was delivered "via iOS." Because the tweet didn't include a content link (photo, video, webpage or map reference), some people got pretty excited, and decided that this suggests that the final version of iOS 5 will allow users to "tweet from anywhere."
Unfortunately, this isn't quite the case. After playing around with the first beta version of iOS 5 earlier today, a helpful developer (who wishes to remain anonymous) discovered that it's already possible to send tweets like these using the Contacts app. As you can see in the image below, he was able to reproduce such a tweet from our own Twitter account.
The method itself is pretty simple, though unfortunately it doesn't involve a "tweet from anywhere" feature (for that, we would recommend using the qTweeter jailbreak application). As mentioned, reproducing the above tweet is done using the Contacts app. Fortunately, the developer explained the process to us - so we're going to explain it to you.
As we already know, Apple is adding Twitter integration to the iOS in its fifth major release. And one feature of this is the ability to add a Twitter profile to contacts from within the Contacts app. Once you've added a Twitter profile to a contact within the Contacts app, touching the handle opens up a pop-up tweet box (just like touching a phone number initiates a call). The "@ mention" which is already present within the tweet box can be deleted and replaced.
This tweet would appear in Twitter just like Jake Behrens', without a content link and "via iOS." Which is why the Apple developer's tweet doesn't necessarily indicate that iOS 5 will feature a "tweet from anywhere" tool. At the end of the day, it's not too difficult to open up the Twitter app, is it?
Don't get us wrong - there's obviously a chance Apple might add this feature in iOS 5, but we don't think it'll happen. At the very least, you can be sure that Behrens' tweet is in no way evidence that such a feature is coming in iOS 5.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.