Twitter has come a long way in the time that it has been around, nearly six years or so. But, really it hasn’t taken off until about the last three, if not sooner. When I first joined about two years ago, I saw it as a way to let my friends and other people know my thoughts, what I was eating, etc. Now, I use it in a whole different way in which I get important tech news, leads on startups, check to see what is happening around the world and still as a way to communicate with people.
Yes, Twitter is growing into more than just a way to voice your thoughts to others, it is evolving into one of the most powerful ways to communicate from a personal as well as a global standpoint. While it has been growing and changing, so have the third-party apps that have been made for it. Take for example, Thirst, an app that takes a new twist on your Twitter stream and presents it to you in a way that we wouldn’t have never thought possible a year or so ago. It lets you consume your feed by combining the old way of reading Twitter as well as the new.
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What is Thirst?
Thirst takes a new look on your feed by analyzing it and sorting your tweets into topics that are being talked about amongst the people you follow. The homescreen of the app is called your Newspaper, and this is where you see all of the different things that people are talking about on Twitter. The more people that are talking about a certain subject, the bigger it shows on this page. If you want to see the tweets about that specific topic, you can just click on it and you can see what people are saying.
Newspaper view.
There are a couple of other ways to view tweets in Thirst other than through the Newspaper. The first one is called the Featured tab, where you get a similar view to Newspaper, but the topics are more general and usually don’t change much. For example, some of the topics being used are music, sports, movies and tv, fashion, etc., where you can click on a specific one and see a variety of things about it. So I can click on a main topic like sports, and then click on a sub topic and I can get specific news on it from different sources as well as see what the general Twitter public is saying about it.
Featured view and news articles from different topics.
The last view that you can use is the traditional Twitter view where you can see tweets from the people you follow like you would on the website. You can also check your mentions as well, but there is no view for your direct messages. A few of the other features include viewing tweets that you have favorited, as well as topics that are trending at the moment. One other cool thing is that Thirst uses iCloud sync so you can sync your timeline with the iPad app as well.
A Different Type of Twitter Client
What makes Thirst unique is the fact that it has taken the average Twitter client and made it even more useful. Twitter is evolving into more than just a client to communicate with others; it has started to become a way for us to get our news and information about the topics we are interested in. With an app like Thirst, it can definitely appeal to just about any type of Twitter user, whether you are one who likes to read about the most recent news topics or if you just want to communicate what you just ate.
Traditional Twitter view.
Now on the flip side, Thirst is definitely not for people who are “power users” of Twitter. If you are looking for a client to replace the Twitter app, this won’t satisfy your needs as it is not as full featured as most general clients. Thirst is perfect for those who use Twitter as a way to consume information versus as a way to communicate. That being said, the experience using the app was pretty decent. Everything about Thirst worked fine and I liked the concept behind it, but the one thing that I didn’t like was the fact that there was so much to it that the iPhone was almost too small of a screen for it. After using the iPad app, I would rather use it over the iPhone.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a different way to read your Twitter feed, then you should go and check out Thirst. I think you will find it is one of the best ways to read up on the latest news that is going on around the world. It is free in the App Store and is universal for the iPhone and iPad.
Do you have a favorite way that you like to use Twitter? What client do you use to read your feed and why do you like it? Let us know in the comments.