Twitter Launches A Redesigned iPhone Client - Featuring A Brand New UI

Twitter has just released a brand new version of its iOS Twitter client to the App Store. It features a brand new look for the iPhone version. Completely redesigned, this new 4.0 version is part of Twitter's big redesign that was announced today. It will affect their entire array of products, including the Twitter website. As you'll see, Twitter has re-imagined its service around four concepts: Home, Connect, Discover and Me. As described by Twitter:

• Home is where you start from: a personal collection of Tweets from the sources you care about. The Tweet details show rich information such as replies, retweets and embedded images.
• Connect is the place to see who followed or mentioned you, retweeted or favorited one of your Tweets. It’s where you keep the conversation flowing.
• Discover is where you can tap into the stories and trends people are talking about in your world. You can also find friends, browse interests, and explore hashtags here.
• Me puts you and your interests front and center. From here you can exchange Direct Messages with your followers.

  In a nutshell, Home is now your timeline. Connect allows you to check your interactions and mentions, Discover is a way to use search, check hashtags and a new thing called Stories, which is like a collection of tweets about current events. Me allows you to access your profile and settings. We're still checking it out, but Twitter has clearly gone a long way to change the old design, famously designed by Loren Brichter originally for Tweetie 2. Unfortunately, while seemingly more friendly and very nicely laid out, this client seems much less useful. At least, that's my first impression of it as a heavy user. For example, it doesn't let you interact with tweets inside your timeline anymore, using clever gestures (what was called "QuickSwipe"). Instead, you need to open every tweet in a new detail window if you want to interact with it which is not as convenient. No wonder some people already speculate that this new client is the reason why Brichter left Twitter. Further, you'll notice that this new layout wastes a lot of space on Chrome, and won't let you see as many tweets anymore, which is also controversial. We'll need to spend more time with this new client to get a better feel for whether this is a move forward or backward. In the meantime, let us know how you like it in the comments.

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