Late last week, Seesmic released new Twitter client applications for Android and BlackBerry. Since I’m currently a happy user of TweetGenius on my BlackBerry Tour 9630, I thought I’d do a quick comparison.
It’s worth noting that the version of Seesmic for BlackBerry I’m showing you is currently an Alpha release, so it’s still buggy and incomplete. Seesmic has a good history of frequent updates though, so fixes and new features should appear rapidly.
TweetGenius
Although it isn’t free, TweetGenius is currently the best Twitter client available for BlackBerry. Here are some of its notable features:
- Option to schedule the fetching of new tweets, ranging from every 3 minutes to every 4 hours
- Familiar keyboard shortcuts for frequently used actions (composing a message, replying, sending a direct message, etc.)
- Ability to mark messages as favorites
- Can send your GPS location. The current version (1.1.2) does not support Twitter’s new geolocation API
- URL shortening with bit.ly
- Search and view trends
- Upload photos to TwitPic or yFrog, and view images without leaving the app
I’m a big fan of the TweetGenius user interface, too. It probably has the best design of any application I have on my Tour.
TweetGenius has an extensive settings area where you can customize many of its options.
Seesmic for BlackBerry
Even though this alpha release of Seesmic is pretty rough, it’s good when compared to some of the other free Twitter clients for BlackBerry.
Some of its pluses:
- Auto-downloading of older messages when you reach the bottom of your list
- Background notifications to alert you of new replies and direct messages
- Support for Twitter’s new list feature
- Support for native geolocation using the BlackBerry’s built-in GPS
- TwitPic and yFrog support
- URL shortening with bit.ly
- A clean, simple interface inspired by the built-in BlackBerry email client
And, some of the minuses:
- No keyboard shortcuts yet, so everything needs to be done via the menu and the scroll ball
- No option to mark a tweet as a favorite
- No ability to follow new people
- You can’t few someone’s Twitter profile information
- Clicking on a photo link launches it in the BlackBerry browser instead of viewing it right in Seesmic
- The process to shorten a URL is not intuitive at all
Get used to that menu, because you’ll be using it a lot.
Seesmic’s Settings screen is surprisingly sparse
Keep an Eye on Seesmic for BlackBerry
I have no plans to switch over to Seesmic from TweetGenius anytime soon, but I’m definitely going to keep an eye on it. Its maker (also called Seesmic) has a reputation for listening to user feedback and innovating quickly, so I expect it to be a real competitor very soon.