Twitter just updated its Android app to v4.0 and refined its UI to be more in line with Android’s Holo guidelines. Twitter’s old application was quite archaic, featuring menu buttons and non-swipeable tabs. This version corrects some of those flaws but still does not completely adhere to the guidelines.
Twitter now features a more flat user interface. Gone are the hard borders and virtually curved panes. They have now been replaced by a flat blue pane reminiscent of Microsoft’s Modern UI. The good news is that the various tabs in Twitter, namely Home, Connect, Discover and Me are all accessible by swiping left or right. This makes navigating around the app a lot faster and makes the app feel more fluid.
They’ve also extended the expanded Card view which features a lot more content, as well as app ratings and descriptions. Even the Discover tab has been made a lot more visual and appealing to look at!
Unfortunately, the new Twitter app does not feature a pane to the left of the first screen housing all possible menus. It is one of the core features of the Holo UI and makes for some very easy navigation. Another demerit is the fact that Twitter has not deleted the menu button at an API level. This means that all Android 4+ phones without a menu button (HTC’s One range comes to mind) will still feature a large action overflow bar on the bottom, which would be pretty much useless.
Either way, the new change is a welcome one, especially after Twitter’s lockdown on third party apps. At least now, more people can find solace in the first party app and not be dependent on alternatives for their Twitter fix. Hopefully, Twitter soon integrates some of the more creative features that have become staples in third party Twitter apps these days.
