New Mobile Twitter Client Twittme Offers 240 Character Tweets

Twittme mobile Web Twitter client

Twittme is a new mobile Twitter front end. That makes at least six now. What sets Twittme apart from the rest is that it allows creating Tweets longer than 140 characters. The “What are you doing” field in Twittme accepts up to 240 characters. Tweets longer than 140 are sent as two successive Tweets. Several desktop clients do this but Twittme is the first mobile web one I’ve seen that does.

Tweetme is a feature rich client (see the table below to see how it compares with the others). However there is one omission in Twittme that really bugs me. Twitter @IDs and #hashtags in the body of Tweets are un-clickable plain text rather than links. I often click on IDs, especially in retweets. It’s the main way I discover new people to follow. Not being able to click hashtags is a big limitation too as they are the best way to follow live events and to see what others are saying on a topic.

Also on the Twitter mobile web client front, Dabr and Twitstat have added support for Twitter’s brand new Lists feature. Both let you view the lists that you are on and Twitstat lets create new lists as well.

Below is an updated  version of the Twitter mobile client comparison table from my “What’s The Best Twitter Mobile Web Client?” post of a year ago. I’ve added Twittme, rechecked page sizes and features for all clients and added rows indicating which clients display advertising and which support OAuth.

Client Twitter Mobile Tweete Dabr Slandr Twitstat Twittme
Search N Y Y Y Y Y
Follow Y Y Y Y Y Y
Actions N Y Y Y Y Y
Counter N Y Y Y Y N
Avatars N Y Y Y Y Y
Delete N Y Y Y Y Y
No H. Scroll Y Y N N N Y
Size 12 14 13 256 54 56
Ready.mobi 4 4 4 4 4 4
Ads? N N N Y Y Y
OAuth N N Y N N N

Key

  • Search:  Find topics and Tweeps using text search.
  • Follow:  Client provides a way to add new Tweeps to the list of those you are following.
  • Action: Client has icons or links to reply, favorite, direct message or ReTweet without having to remember that D=Direct @=Reply, fav=Favorite and  Retweet:= Retweet.
  • Counter: Shows the number of characters remaining so that you don’t type more than 140 and have your Tweet truncated.  The counters require JavaScript and don’t work in Opera Mini.
  • Avatars :  Shows an avatar next to each post. Tweete, Dabr and Twitstat allow you to turn the avatars off for low memory browsers and slow or expensive connections.
  • Delete: Client lets you delete your own Tweets.
  • No H. Scroll: Client wraps text properly so that horizontal scrolling is never required  in Opera Mini and possibly other browsers.
  • Size: Minimum uncompressed size (with avatars and in-line images turned off if possible) in kilobytes of a page full of Tweets.  Under 20 KB should work on any phone including those with Openwave and Motorola MIB browsers. Under 100 is OK on modern feature phones using Nokia, NetFront, Teleca or Polaris browsers.  Opera Mini and current smartphones can all handle at least 300 KB pages.
  • Ready.mobi: Score (1-5) of dotMobi’s “mobile readiness” tester.  The tests were performed on the client’s (small) login screen and probably over estimate the mobile readiness of the client’s with timeline page sizes over 20 KB.
  • Ads? Client displays advertising on timeline pages.
  • OAuth Client allows login using Twitter OAuth which should prevent your Twitter credentials from being compromised if the Twitter client’s security is breached.

Twittme is an interesting new client that should appeal to users who want the freedom to write Tweets longer than 140 characters.  For me the ability to click on IDs and hashtags is more important than long Tweets so I’ll be sticking with Dabr, except in Opera Mini where I use Tweete because Dabr doesn’t wrap text properly in that browser.

Filed in: Wap Review Directory – Technology/Mobile/Mobile Social/Twitter

Ratings: Content ****_ Usability XXX__

Ready.mobi Score: 4 “Good”

Mobile Link: twittme.mobi

2 thoughts on “New Mobile Twitter Client Twittme Offers 240 Character Tweets

  1. Pingback: Twittme – mobile web Twitter in a pinch | TwitTrix

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