Tweenky is a relatively new Twitter client that’s currently in beta. Tweenky is different from most Twitter clients in the sense that it’s a web-based application. This has both good and bad aspects to it, but overall, Tweenky handles it well. It’s written primarily in PHP and uses jQuery extensively, and also relies on Amazon’s Web Services (EC2 and S3).

Installation/Setup:

To get signed up for Tweenky, you need to have a beta invitation code and your Twitter credentials. Once you get those, you can log in to the application where you can begin using it immediately. You can also supply your Identi.ca username and password and use Tweenky for that service in every manner you can use it for Twitter.

Update: Derek has supplied me with some invitation codes. If you want to sign up, use the code chewbocka. Thanks Derek!

The real setup comes from getting folders created and using the search criteria. I’m a huge fan of using search.twitter.com for applications and Tweenky leverages that to the fullest. I strongly suggest using the Search features in some way. If you need guidance on how to use Search, check out my guide.

User Interface:

You’ll find Gmail and Google Reader inspired design in Tweenky. The lead developer (@derek) confessed to being inspired by the simplicity and power of Gmail’s design.

On the left side of the screen, you will find the navigation links (shown at left) that control what’s displayed in the main content area. Clicking through links on the left toggles the display so you don’t have to worry about horizontal space requirements (many users complained about TweetDeck’s layout). This is both a blessing and a curse: it’s great to be able to view individual frames with full focus, but it can be tiring to switch back and forth between views. The problem is exacerbated by the lack of notifications to new tweets, a feature which developers say is coming.

Tweenky’s biggest UI score boost comes from the coloring methods it uses for tweets. When new tweets appear, they slide in (the site utilizes AJAX) with a red hue to them, which fades to an off-white after a few seconds. Eventually, they turn plain white unless they’re either one of your tweets or a reply to you. In those instances, the tweet turns either a light shade of green or red, respectively. This makes it easy to find content contributed by or directed at the authenticated user.

I feel there’s currently a small glitch in the UI. When resizing Tweenky to less horizontal space than it wants (something like 1000px), it simply gets cut off instead of dynamically adjusting the width of each tweet box. Word is that Tweenky will ultimately be optimized for 1024×768 resolutions. For widescreen users like me, the horizontal space will be underutilized, while laptop users will praise the decision.

User Experience:

Outside of TweetDeck (review), this is the only application that got me excited to use Twitter. It could have been the “new client smell” or the fancy AJAX, but I found this application to be absolutely painless. Think of it as the Twitter web client on steroids – it’s got all the same views (minus direct messages) PLUS the almighty power of Search seamlessly integrated into the navigation bar.

Not only is it feature-packed, it’s got all the basics covered. You can view profiles, reply, retweet, direct message, and follow/unfollow users. On top of that, you can translate a tweet to Spanish with one click. That’s called having your cake and eating it too. Or maybe it’s having your flan and ea… never mind.

There is a minor hiccup in the user experience, and that is that you have to authenticate every time you go to the site. Since you’re logging in with your Twitter credentials, this means your password is probably not being saved outside of the current session. I feel like this is more of a security feature than a usability flaw, so I didn’t deduct any points for it.

Features:

Tweenky does all the simple things well and goes the extra mile to include some useful features. For starters, once you load the UI, you’ll never have to hit refresh because new updates are delivered automatically. It even does the basic features like replying and retweeting well. Since it incorporates the Identi.ca service, you can actually send a tweet to Twitter and/or Identi.ca all at once.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate and use the search features in Tweenky. Currently, I have 5 search criteria set up that I can check on when I want/need to. Search is an incredibly powerful (and underrated tool) and the developer, @derek, knows it.

Built-in URL shortening is the other feature I can’t live without. This application supports URL shortening via snipurl.com and is.gd. To shorten a URL, click the service provider, enter your URL, and it’ll insert the short URL at the cursor position in the tweet box.

There are some shortcomings to Tweenky’s feature set, the most glaring of which is the inability to view direct messages. @derek says this feature is in the works, so I’ll let it slide since the app is in beta. Another feature I miss is the ability to travel back in time to view tweets that do not fall on the first page. I think Tweenky shows somewhere around 50 tweets, but after that, you’re out of luck. The final feature I want to see is some kind of notifications to new tweets. Gmail does a good job at modifying the page title when new messages arrive, so I would like to see this feature relatively soon. There are also plans to include tweet counts to folders created with Search.

Performance:

Sometimes when I was trying to use the Identi.ca features, it would start loading them and I’d get an alert simply saying “Error”. Since I don’t rely too heavily on that service and this is a Twitter review, I can look past it. There was one day where the service was running slow due to excessive database size, which was quickly fixed. Since then, I’ve had no performance issues regarding speed.

In terms of API usage, I’ve been assured that Tweenky should never exceed Twitter’s rate limit due to intelligent retrieval and caching techniques. After all, there’s nothing worse than being blacked out for 10 minutes waiting for your quota to be reset.

Overall Impression:

In the intro, I mentioned that there were ups and downs to being a web app. For starters, not everyone wants to use a web application. What they may not realize is that Tweenky stores all of your preferences and settings so you can log in anywhere in the world and it will be set up per your specification. One setup is all it takes. It also has the added bonus of being software that doesn’t need to be installed. And if you need more incentive to try it out, there’s a chance that your employer may block Twitter but not Tweenky (please let me know your results if you try).

Tweenky is the first Twitter client since TweetDeck that’s had me enthralled with Twitter. It should come as no shock when I say this is the best Twitter client I’ve come across – and it’s only a few weeks old to boot. This application has a long way to come, but it’s already got a great start. If only it were an AIR app too…

Screenshots

I feel like this application deserves to have some screenshots along with the review.

User View

Tweet Input Area

Settings Pane