So @jonguntrip and I were chatting over lunch yesterday about Twitter Apps. It’s one of our favourite past times, what’s new, what’s good, what’s bad etc but this time I started to think. Twitter apps have really hit a glass ceiling for me.
I first realised this on the run up to the release of a Twitter iPhone app called Birdfeed. There was a lot of buzz about it, possibly due to it’s sexy icon and teaser website… Alas I was drawn in.
Upon it’s release I eagerly purchased (£2.99) and downloaded it. What I found was ultimately disappointing. It was just another Twitter client for the iPhone. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting, but I wanted more than Tweetie, Twitterfon, Tweetdeck to name some of the few I have tried (and liked).
Actually though, it’s not Birdfeed’s fault. It’s a solid app, and does what it needs to do. With the constant evolution and one-upmanship you see in apps these days, I was obviously expecting something groundbreaking. Fundamentally though, I don’t think that is possible with Twitter clients anymore.
Think about it, what else can you really do with a Twitter client these days that hasn’t already been done? Twitter obviously offer a limited set of features via it’s API, you have limited third party integration with the likes of Twitpic et al. Once you’ve covered your bases there, you’re done right?
I have three pieces of evidence that says to me that Twitter apps are hitting a glass ceiling:
- No iPhone apps for Twitter have come out recently that have wowed anyone beyond belief. Tweetie probably had the biggest launch, but nothing since. Everything else just seemed like a me too.
- Subsequent updates to these apps are few and far between. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke!
- Any updates we do get are pretty dull or just bug fixes. Birdfeed’s 1.1 release yesterday is a prime example. They did one tweet with a new piece of functionality 98% of people won’t use, and a final tweet to say the rest was bug fixes. All that in 2 months. Great!
Apps like Tweetie are also promising some big updates in early September, both on iPhone and desktop. But I find myself now completely dulled to any excitement around what that will bring. I just can’t imagine anything new.
Ultimately what these apps will continue to do is try and mimic each others limited functionality to try and transfer users, and I guess they’ll all end up being much the same as each other. Submitting themselves to random whims of their user community, adding more random third party integration and not getting anywhere. In this case, I can’t see competition leading to innovation, as it hasn’t proved itself yet.
It’s not the app developers fault though. It’s actually ours, the users. Lets be realistic, and remind ourselves that actually, we just need an app that views tweets and lets you tweet. It’s the way this is implemented that will be the key to success.
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Nice point of view
But just I want to verify, do you mean by apps only iPhone apps ?
Because a lot of idea can be implemented for desktop applications
First: I haven’t actually gotten around to posting about everything that’s new in 1.1. I’m on vacation right now, and just putting together the docs for the bookmarklet was time consuming, so the updates are a little slow. There’s actually more than just the URL scheme and bug fixes. Give me a little time and I’ll get more details up.
Second, even if it *was* just those things, I think you severely underestimate the amount of work that goes into quality iPhone software. You think of Birdfeed as an incremental improvement over what came before it, but you have to keep in mind that I had to do pretty much all of the work anyone else has done on the major iPhone Twitter clients *plus* those extra incremental improvements. I didn’t just start with Tweetie and bolt some stuff on.
Third, you make the mistake of assuming that what Birdfeed is now is all it will ever be. This is a *1.1* release. I actually have a fairly ambitious slate of plans, including some things no one else has done. Also, Twitter itself is about to go through some pretty significant changes (formalized retweeting, per-tweet geolocation) that I believe are going to kick off a new cycle of innovation in iPhone Twitter clients.
Fourth, your assertion that no one will use the URL scheme is a bit vexing to me. At the very least it enables the posting bookmarklet and support for third party push apps but it could also be useful beyond that. It also lays the foundation within the app for future features, such as direct push support once Twitter introduces that.
Hey Buzz – Thanks for your message.
Please don’t mistake what I perceive as lack of great new features, for lack of effort from the developer side or lack of ambition. I truly appreciate what it takes to make one of these apps, and I know it is not an easy task. If it were, we’d all be doing it. I’m pretty sure you put blood sweat and tears into Birdfeed, and you should be congratulated for the solid app you launched.
This wasn’t meant to be an attack on Birdfeed, I apologies if it sounds like that. Birdfeed is actually my most used Twitter client, and I like it a lot, I was just deflated on launch that it was (feature-wise) the same as all other Twitter apps. However as I stated, that is actually probably my fault – what should I have expected? Even I don’t know that – if I did, I’d develop it.
What I am trying to convey in this article is the user’s requirement for more, and the developers seeming ability to not deliver anything really groundbreaking on Twitter apps. This is based on what we’ve seen so far with Twitter apps… I am sure you guys, Tweetie et al all have some interesting plans for their apps, and I am really looking forward to being proved wrong, because ultimately – that is what I want
You were right to defend Birdfeed, and I’m glad you did! At the very least it shows passion for what you do.