 "Twicca Review")
Twicca is a versatile and beautifully designed Twitter client complete with an arsenal of features, customisations and even a pretty icon that replaces the Twitter bird with an origami stork. Google Play is choc-a-bloc with apps that suit different kinds of tweeple, but Twicca stands out for its simplicity and rich functionality.
Features and UI
The app displays mentions, feed, profiles, direct messages, lists, and favourites. There are several settings for changing the UI, posting tweets, receiving notifications, viewing the home feed, searching, setting the location, previewing content, caching, and so on.
Twitter timeline on Twicca
Tweeting
You could either reply to selected users or all the users mentioned in a tweet. You could also quote the tweet you are replying to.
The app supports retweets as well as retweeting by quoting the user. In the latter, you can append your comments to the tweet.
View trending topics and hashtags, search for them and also save the searches.
Attach saved hashtags to your tweets. A hashtag is saved automatically once you use it. You can also geo-tag your tweets and attach URLs to them.
The app supports URL-shortening.
The app displays the client or interface from which a tweet has been posted.
Open a selected tweet in a browser.
Share tweets using other apps.
The app displays reply history, i.e., tweets between users are displayed together as a conversation.
Choose the auto-refresh interval for the feed, direct messages, and mentions. Also, choose the number of tweets or messages to be loaded at a time. This lets you determine the frequency with which you will receive notifications. Turning off auto-refresh saves battery life and data.
Menu displayed on long pressing a tweet
Media
Attach photos and videos to tweets using the ‘via.me’ shortener. Photos and videos can be shot directly from Twicca.
Open embedded media and URLS in a browser, gallery, or compatible apps.
The app also has an image viewer, which displays images from most hosting services and also those uploaded directly to Twitter.
It offers a preview of videos embedded in tweets.
Posting a tweet
User interface
Choose the number of tweets to be loaded at a time. Choose between a light and dark theme and customisable font sizes.
The app supports auto pagination.
Set a colour label to a user or group of users to organise the tweeple you follow.
Account management
Edit your profile, add or remove profile photos, report users for spam, block and unblock users.
The app supports multiple user accounts
Others
- Install plug-ins. Many third party extensions for Twicca are available on Google Play. There are plug-ins to connect the app to Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, etc. The Image Download plugin downloads images from tweets.
- Filter tweets from your timeline according to user, source or keywords. This can be used to mute trending topics you do not wish to view in your feed or users who tweet too frequently.
Performance
The app is light, fast, and efficient. It does not drain battery life even when you set the smallest auto-refresh interval.
Pros
The features and customisations ensure that every type of user, smartphone, and setting are taken care of. The UI is uncomplicated despite the innumerable options and settings. Everything can be accessed with a tap or a long press. The best quality of the UI is readability. Also, there are no long or tedious procedures to set anything. It’s free of cost, 2.6MB in size and supports Android versions 1.6 and later. So, it can be used on a wide range of smartphones. Sponsored tweets on Twitter are not displayed on Twicca.
Cons
Auto-complete of Twitter handles in tweets takes very long. The only way out is to type out the handle yourself. Twicca does not show ‘Interactions’, i.e., the app does not display notifications for someone adding you to a list or a new user following you. Using multiple accounts is tedious, but the Google Play listing of Twicca mentions the feature as “experimental”. Twicca does not support scheduling of tweets. Taking and uploading photos becomes a little shaky at times.
Verdict
Leaving aside the little chinks, Twicca is an amazing and beautiful app. What’s more, it’s free, easy-to-use, and fast. Even if you are a casual tweeter who does not need the many frills of Twicca, you will like it for its easy and gorgeous interface.
Download Twicca from Google Play.
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