I’ve been traveling these past few weeks, having a wonderful time in Morocco, and I didn’t have my MacBook with me—I went iPhone only and I didn’t regret it until two days ago, when the wonderful folks at Tapbots announced Tweetbot 2.0 for Mac [App Store]. This has been my goto Twitter client ever since the iPhone version gained notifications back in … a long time ago. This is also my favourite piece of software. Ever.

Why Tweetbot?

Many people do not quite understand what it is that I see in Tweetbot. It has two distinct features which make it the best Twitter client in the world. The best for me naturally.

Design is as the top of my list, but not the only feature which makes me want to use software. Any software. Mark Jardine has done an outstanding job so far on the iPhone version [App Store], transitioning from the rich textures of iOS 6 (and earlier) to a much learner and cleaner look for iOS 7. The iPad edition [App Store] still relies on the old look, but Tapbots are currently working on an update. It was promised before WWDC 2015 and it will most assuredly be late, but I don’t mind that much—a few more weeks or months won’t change much for me.

The second feature which is worth the world to me is Tweetbot’s ability to sync my Twitter timeline between platforms. Since I actually read each and every Tweet (OK, I admit I sometimes skim the less interesting ones), the ability to pick up where I left off on my iPhone, iPad or Mac is paramount. App.Net had this functionality built into its API and I cannot understand why Twitter has not yet implemented their own solution. I even wrote a letter to Twitter a while back. In theory I could just use one device for Twitter and then proceed to use their client. But Twitter’s software is rarely updated¹, extremely cluttered and I despise the web interface. Another issue is that the Twitter app will just decide to scroll to the top of my timeline for no apparent reason. This is simply unacceptable.

There is a lot more to Tweetbot for iPhone, iPad and Mac, but just these two features make it the best client in the world.

Tweetbot 2.0 for Mac

The new redesign makes the app fit right in with OS X Yosemite’s style. The slight transparency of the sidebar hints at the desktop picture or windows behind it, but is not distracting. The balance and size of the avatars, text and icons is spot on. The ability to navigate the whole UI with just the keyboard is extremely intuitive. All these things add up to make a truly great piece of software. There are still a few bugs here and there, and not all of the new features which are already present in the iPhone app are there, but this will come in time.

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I use Tweetbot for iPhone, iPad and Mac each and every day. I recently asked myself how much I would be willing to pay for them without batting an eyelid and I came up with €100—33 per app more or less. I would probably pay more if I had to, simply because this is the best piece of software that I have come across in my life. €100 per app? I would cringe but most probably go for it. And if I was allowed to install only one app on any of my devices I would not hesitate and go for Tweetbot.

Thank you Mark, Paul and Todd. You guys rock my world.

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★ Tweetbot 2.0 – Mac – €19.99 > €12.99 →
★ Tweetbot 3.0 – iPhone – €4.99 →
★ Tweetbot 1.0 – iPad – €2.99 →