My Tweetbot 4 Review - Activity Tab is Worth the Price of Admission

Tweetbot 4 has been out for about a week or two now and I’ve switched over to it being my everyday Twitter client.

My Twitter needs are simple, but like all my needs, very particular.  Here’s what I’m looking for and how Tweetbot stacks up.

1. Universality; most importantly timeline sync.  I’ve tried “tweet marker” and never found it to be reliable enough.  I want my computer, iPhone, and iPad to all be synced flawlessly every time.  iCloud sync has proven to be quite good at this on my last client and Tweetbot nailed it as well.  Tweetbot’s advantage here is having a Mac client and not just iOS.  So huge win on my top feature.  But in addition, Tweetbot for both Mac and iOS are very well designed for their platforms with tons of great features.  I particularly love the “TweetDeck-style” columns on the Mac.  And the new iPad app makes great use of the screen space.  Tweetbot is right now the only Twitter client that I feel is great on every device I own.  Wonderfully, they also just added “badge sync” so if you clear the badge on your iPad, it’s gone on your iPhone.  Why can’t Apple just get that working across the system already??
2. Great design.  Tweetbot looks great, but more importantly, works like my brain does.  I never liked the “unified timeline” approach, despite it’s convince, because often I get a reply to a tweet from a while ago and so seeing that later never made sense.  I like the tabs at the bottom for quick access to things and their method for changing tabs is great.  All the features you want like auto-dark theme and such are available too.  I’m a big fan of having the text match size and font to the system- looks very nice and right at home.

But beyond being the best in these requirements, Tweetbot also wins for having done some fantastic features that I really love.

First up the easy one- adding Safari View Controller to open web links.  This is quickly becoming a must-have for me in any app that I use links in regularly.  Now that I’m deep into 1 Password, Pocket, and using an iOS content blocker, I’ve really got Safari running in a way that makes me happy.  Having all that work for me when I open links in apps is just amazingly good.  And Safari View Controller is easier on developers too, so win-win.  I LOVE Safari View Controller and hope all my apps get updated with it sooner than later (hint, hint- Feedly ;) 

Next, and most notably, the Activity Tab.

This is the feature that finally killed the native Twitter client for me.  The one thing that Twitter’s own app did best was showing “activity” but that crown has been passed.  Tweetbot’s Activity Tab alone is worth the price of admission to me.  Being able to quickly see who’s followed me, faved or retweeted me, and what tweets are getting noticed is awesome.  Yes, it’s a double-edged sword for those who are stats-obsessed, but for me who is just curious and often absent minded, this is amazing!  I’m in love with this feature.

Overall, Tweetbot 4 is a fantastic update and well worth your time and money.  I had switched away from Tweetbot about a year ago and this update has completely brought me back.  I plan to stay for the foreseeable future too, with the Tapbots team having perfected the Twitter client.

But that’s just my opinion...

(Author's Note - I have no affiliation with Tweetbot or Tapbots, nor was I given any compensation or consideration for this article.  I just wanted to give some praise to an app I really love and happily paid for myself.)