Secretss

I am a big Twitter user, incredibly picky and opinionated, and I’ve used 35 Twitter clients to date. So here are a few features and functions that shouldn’t be missing from Twitter apps that want to be in my approved list.

1. Twitlonger integration
   With Twitlonger integration, tweets exceeding 140 characters could be passed to Twitlonger and a tl.gd link posted instead. Twitter for iPhone, Osfoora, Twitbird Pro, and Tweetings are some apps that have this feature.
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2. Native in-app expansion of tl.gd links
   This way we don’t have to load the Twitlonger website in the built-in browser, double tap on our screens to zoom in, and then read the tweet. Twitter for iPhone and Osfoora both support text expansion.
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3. Threaded tweet conversations and DMs
   Unthreaded tweet conversations bug me. I don’t want to have to scroll through each individual tweet view to see the full conversation. I want to see the conversation in one view. Also for DMs, I am shocked to know there are still apps without threaded DMs.
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4. Native image viewing for imagehost links
   Imagehost links should be loaded with just the images, and not within the website interface in the built-in browser. Twitter for iPhone does this well. Osfoora doesn’t because the dev didn’t acknowledge the high probability that iPhone users would be tweeting iPhone screenshots. Osfoora has a bar on top of the image view which makes the screenshot cut off at the bottom (when it could have been displayed nicely on the screen since the dimensions are a complete fit), and there are only two zoom levels, which is just appalling.
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5. More image and video hosts, and better upload management
   For image hosts, there are twitpic, yfrog, tweetphoto, posterous, twitgoo, mobypicture, img.ly etc, and for video hosts there are twitvid, yfrog, posterous, mobypicture, vodpod, etc. We should even be allowed custom hosts.
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   We must be able to upload/tweet more than one image. Twitter for iPhone and Osfoora both allow tweeting of multiple images, and users are able to view (and remove images if necessary) the selected images by tapping on the “attachments” button. We should be able to view the selected images in full view to make sure we have selected the right photos.
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   In the case when Twitter fails but the imagehost works and the image links are obtained, the links should get automatically saved together with the tweet under Drafts so we can reuse the links, instead of having to upload them again even though your imagehost already has them hosted.
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6. Color coded tweets/tweet alignments
   It should be a must to have our own tweets, our mentions, and our friends’ tweets highlighted in three distinct colors. Making the user’s tweets oppositely aligned is another idea. Twitter for iPhone, Twitbird Pro, and Tweetaholic have user tweets aligned with the text on the left and the avatar on the right, while the other tweets are the opposite way around.
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7. Tweet preview in compose view
   Having the tweet that you’re replying to displayed in the compose view (with a pulldown-to-view mechanism like in Twitter for iPhone) is always a good idea.
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8. Retweets
   A feature to view tweets retweeted by myself and more importantly tweets of mine retweeted by others. Twitter for iPhone and Osfoora have this.
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9. Hacking the tweet “in reply to” attribute
   This would be really sweet. I used to have a Greasemonkey script for the desktop Twitter.com that modified the “in reply to” attribute so that I could reply to Person A while not having to have Person A’s Twitter username precede my tweet. I could even put Person B’s username in front and still have that tweet as a reply to Person A. This is, however, understandably hard to achieve.
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10. A “copy status link” button
    Sometimes we want to point our followers to a tweet (also known as a status). There has to be a “Copy status link” button somewhere on the individual tweet view interface.
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11. Recognition and appropriate handling of status links
    Status links posted in tweets should be recognized and loaded in the native in-app tweet view, instead of loaded in MobileTwitter in the built-in browser. Twitter for iPhone supports this, but very rarely do I come across this neat feature.
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12. A tap-and-hold menu for links within tweets
    There should be a menu that pops up upon tap-and-holding on a link in a tweet for us to select an option to copy link, save link to Instapaper (or similar), and other options.
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13. More choices for URL shorteners
    There are tons of URL shortening services, and a good Twitter app should support as many as possible: j.mp, bit.ly, u.nu, is.gd, tiny.cc, tr.im, l.pr, cli.gs, awe.sm, etc.
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14. Ability to select what to refresh upon each API call
    I want to be able to tell my Twitter app what to refresh upon each automated API call to Twitter, like home, mentions, certain lists, and DMs, so I don’t have to manually refresh them myself.
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15. SMS-esque DM conversation interface
    Threaded DMs displayed in left and right bubbles/boxes like in the SMS app. Osfoora, Twitter for iPhone and Twitbird Pro display DMs this way. Or at least colour code the messages.
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16. In-app editing of Twitter bio and particulars.
    This should be pretty self explanatory. We should be able to edit/update our profiles within the app.
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17. Parsing of carriage return
    Tweets with linebreaks should be displayed with said linebreaks in the individual tweet view, though not in the home/list streams. People tweet stuff with linebreaks for a reason, usually for jokes, or riddles. It would be nice if the linebreaks are retained when viewing in tweet view.
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18. Services
    There are tons of services revolving around the Twitter platform, like: who.unfollowed.me, followcost.com, klout.com, twittercounter.com, cursebird.com, tweetcloud.com, twoolr.com, autoff.com, twitter.grader.com etc. Twitter for iPhone and Tweetings are two of very few apps to integrate services.
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19. Integration with Boxcar
    Boxcar allows push notifications for Twitter mentions, retweets, and DMs, and it would be great if Boxcar is able to open my Twitter app when I tap on “view notification”.