There are plenty of Twitter clients available for Google Android. I’ve been pretty happy with Seesmic and Sobees so far. But Twitter launched an official app for Android today, and it has a few awesome features that just might put the competitors out of business — or drive them to up their game significantly.
Like most other Twitter clients, the official Twitter app lets you see the latest updates from your contacts, direct messages, or @ mentions. You cancompose messages, or users profiles. But here are a few of the things that really make this app stand out:
- Contact synchronization feature that lets you sync data about your contacts with your Android address book
- Options to receive notifications for tweets, mentions, and direct messages in the Android notification bar
- Arrange contacts by lists
- Geotag your Tweets and see Tweet locations on a map
- See Tweets from your contacts in your phonebook, Google Talk, or other apps that use the Android QuickContact bar
- Upload images or take a picture with your camera
The tight integration with the Android contacts and notification bar are standout features that really make this Twitter client stand out — although I would probably find it incredibly distracting to get constant updates of new tweets — that’s the reason I’ve already turned off notifications for new email messages.
Now for the bad news. Twitter’s Android app will only work with Android 2.1 devices such as the Google Nexus One and Motorola Droid.
You can find more screenshots at the Twitter blog. Twitter for Android is available as a free download from the Android Market, or you can start the download by scanning the barcode to the right with your Android phone’s camera.
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