San Francisco: Twitter updated its mobile apps for iOS and Android devices Tuesday, restoring features it removed in the last update and adding support for more Android devices.
Twitter unveiled a brand new user interface with its update to 4.0 in December. In doing so,it removed a lot of the features it inherited from Tweetie. But with the release of version 4.1 today, Twitter restored a lot of that missing functionality.
Apple iOS and Android users alike will be able to use the popular swipe gesture shortcut to reveal options to reply, retweet, favorite or view that user’s profile without ever having to leave the timeline.
Twitter also revamped its Find Friends feature to make it more obvious, it says, that it will uploading your contacts in order to find other friends on the social network, the company announced.
There’s a lot here that just targets just Apple iPhone users. Copy and paste for tweets and user profiles is now possible again, too, just by tapping and holding on the text. The new version brings better support for sharing links from Twitter, allowing you to copy, tweet, email the link, or select to read later using your choice of Read Later services.
In Direct Messages, there’s an updated design and, now, the ability to mark all as read has been returned by tapping a check mark in the lower right corner of the app.
If you’re unhappy with the font size that’s used, you can now change that too in Settings.
Android users will find that they can run the official Twitter app across more devices — including the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble Color Nook and the Nook Tablet. The app also has been optimized to run speedier on any device with Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich on board.
Text of Twitter’s blog post announcing the versions and revs excerpted here:
New versions of both Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android are available today. Both apps bring back high-demand features, including the swipe shortcut, and they also introduce new design and functionality improvements. Here’s a rundown.
Both apps
Swipe shortcut: Swipe a Tweet in your home timeline to reply to, retweet, favorite or share it, or view the Twitter user’s profile, without leaving your timeline.
“Find friends”: We’ve added a confirmation alert when you select “Find friends”. This notification more clearly and explicitly messages the fact that when you upload your contacts’ email addresses and phone numbers, you can quickly find which of your friends are on Twitter (that is, if they’ve chosen to be discoverable by email or phone number).Twitter for iPhone
Copy and paste: We’ve returned the ability to copy and paste the text of Tweets and user profiles. Just press and hold to copy.
Link love: The “share” feature used to just give you the option to copy or email a link to a Tweet. Now, if there’s a link within a Tweet, you’ll see the option to tweet, copy or mail that link, or you can choose to read it later. (Select a “Read Later Service” under Settings > Advanced.)
Pressing and holding links provides similar options, along with the ability to open the link in Safari.
Direct messages: We updated the design for Direct Messages and returned the ability to mark all DMs as read. Simply tap the check mark in the lower right corner.
Font size settings: Change the font size under Settings > Advanced.Twitter for Android
New devices: Twitter for Android is now optimized to run on Android devices running Ice Cream Sandwich, as well as on the Kindle Fire (available today through the Amazon Appstore) and the Barnes & Noble NOOK Color and NOOK Tablet (available February 23 though the Barnes & Noble NOOK Store).
You can download Twitter for iPhone today from the App Store and Twitter for Android from Android Market.
