Perhaps no other app category changes as fast and as much as the Twitter client one. They seem to merge, disappear, lose support and come up with new ones more than in any other app category. If you are into Twitter as much as we are, you probably already know the usual popular clients like Twitter for Mac, Twitterrific, TweetDeck, Echofon, etc. We’ve covered most of them before.
But today we are here to show you some cool new Twitter clients that have either gotten popular recently, or have come out in the past few months. Most of them have a unique take on Twitter, like trying to make it a more simple and mindful experience, but you’ll also find a few clients that are in direct competition to the ones mentioned above. Jump in!
Osfoora
Osfoora is a Twitter client that got popular on the iOS and recently made the jump to the Mac platform with a lot of buzz around it. We reviewed it recently, but in short: it has anything that you would expect from a Twitter client, with the addition of a very pretty interface and a few awesome features like Tweet Marker support, inline images, and muting.
Osfoora’s cool looks and awesome features come with a price, though, which may be hard to justify with all of the free alternatives out there on the market.
Price: $4.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Developer: Said Marouf
Itsy
Itsy is a free, simple and clean Twitter client that we also got to review not so long ago. Its main gimmick comes from the minimalistic approach that it brings to the category, but it isn’t missing out on great features like inline images and theme support.
Itsy does lack a few things that some users might miss, like multiple account support and viewing other’s profiles inside the app. If what you are looking for is a simple and free alternative to navigating through your timeline, Itsy doesn’t do a bad job at all.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Developer: Mowglii
Wren
Wren is somewhat of a controversial “client”, because some people argue it shouldn’t even be considered one. Think of it as a complement to your usual Twitter app, something that might help you tweet without getting too distracted with your timeline.
Wren lets you create and post new tweets from your desktop, but that’s about it. You can’t view your timeline in it and you can’t do much else other than posting tweets and saving drafts. It’s as “distraction-free” as apps can get.
Price: $4.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Developer: Andrew Ramos and Kevin Smith
Quick Tweet
Quick Tweet is very similar to Wren in that it is only a quick way for you to post tweets without getting too invested in your timeline. The difference between it, though, is that Quick Tweet is even more simple as it doesn’t support drafts and it also runs on your menu bar. Oh, and it’s also free.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.7 or later
Developer: Chongyu Zhu
Echelon
Echelon is yet another minimalistic Twitter client, but its take on the category is quite unique. It’s sort of a simple way of searching for anything inside of Twitter. You don’t even need a Twitter account to use it, just search for any keyword, user or hashtag and let Echelon display to you the latest results one by one.
If you don’t have a Twitter account and would just like to be able to quickly search any given topic and get real time results from Twitter users right from your desktop, then Echelon might be of great help to you.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Developer: Giorgio Calderolla
UpdateBar
UpdateBar is an app that lives in your menu bar and allows you to quickly post new updates not just to Twitter, but also to Facebook, Tumblr and a few other services, all at the same time. It’s a nice, more complete alternative to apps like Wren and Quick Tweet, but it lacks the “mindful” aspect that those apps claim to have.
Price: $0.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Developer: Matthew Roberts
Hibari
Hibari is a client that shines in its ability to filter your timeline through several features like muting people, keywords, or sources (like Foursquare check-ins or any other sort of automated tweet). With Hibari you can also mix searches with your timeline, see inline pics, remove specific tweets from your timeline and login with multiple accounts.
It also doesn’t hurt that Hibari’s interface is very simple and clean, and also quite accessible as there’s always a text box ready for you to jump in and write your new tweets.
Price: $9.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Developer: Victoria Wang
Ambientweet
Ambientweet is perhaps the weirdest Twitter app included in this roundup. It’s quite different from the rest, as it just sits in your desktop quietly displaying tweets from your timeline one by one, just waiting for you to come in and interact with any of the tweets flying by. It could be interesting to try it out, if anything just as an experiment to see just how much of your timeline is worthless stuff that you don’t care about.
Perhaps the mentality behind the developer will suit some of you: “The Twitter website is great at that stuff (following people, viewing profiles, making lists, etc.), so why try to replicate it?”.
Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Developer: Elegant Chaos
Conclusion
Ever since the web version of Twitter revamped its interface, I’ve heard from a lot of people that have gotten rid of their Mac clients and have just completely embraced the browser tweeting ways. Personally, I use Twitter for Mac just because I have it nicely se tup and it has everything I need, even though it might not be the best client out there. I certainly wouldn’t mind using a more “mindful” client that allows me to tweet without getting too distracted with my timeline, much like Wren or QuickTweet do.
It’s definitely hard to change the app that you use to connect with your Twitter feed if you’ve already got it set up and you’ve gotten comfortable with it. We hope that the options that we’ve shown you here could work for you as a complement or an extension to your current Twitter client. Perhaps you might even enjoy switching to a different, newer client like Osfoora. It’s up to you, just let us know which ones you end up trying out!