Andrew Gormley

I don't think I'm alone in wishing that the Tapbots guys would make a desktop version of Tweetbot, and maybe we're not too far from that day (check out the last @reply), but in the mean time we'll have to make due with what's on the table.

The (First World) Problem

While there's a huge selection of desktop Twitter clients for the Mac, none of them have really felt up to par with the quality of their iOS counterparts. The official iOS Twitter apps have received consistent (if not somewhat controversial) updates as of late, and Echofon and Twitterrific both have great interfaces and feature sets. For some reason, though, their desktop versions haven't been able to sway me from the official Twitter for Mac client despite its shortcomings: no support for Twitter-hosted images or third party image hosting sites like Mlkshk, no support for services like Instapaper or Read It Later, can't view followers/following from within the app, no support for muting users/hashtags, and a few other nifty things. I'm not sure if or when these things will ever be resolved since Loren Brichter, the creator of Tweetie and its current successor, has left the company. In its defense, however, the official Mac client does use the Live Stream API for instant updates, doesn't require external authorization since it's Twitter's own app, and is lightning fast.

A New Contender Enters the Arena

I'd never heard of Osfoora until just the other night on, no surprise, Twitter. Apparently they've had an iOS app for quite some time and finally made the jump to the desktop as so many successful developers have done as of late. I was getting pretty fed up going from Tweetbot to the compatively anemic desktop Twitter client so I decided to shell out the $5 to see if it was worth converting to. I usually wait to see the app store reviews to make an informed purchase, but the screenshots and feature list sold me on this one.

Can It Topple the Reigning Champ?

The interface looks like many of the other apps that have made the jump from iOS to OS X: tall title bar usually containing icons, heavy left-side navigation, elegant transitions between windows, subtle textures, and everything contained in one window. If you use Twitter for Mac, Reeder, Sparrow, Carousel, Mobile RSS, or any of their kin, you'll feel right at home in Osfoora.

In general, I've found Osfoora to be visually appealing and user-friendly with subtle notifications for when new tweets are both sent and received, an easy-to-navigate sidebar, and great features like inline image previews. The ability to right click on a tweet with links and send them to Instapaper or Read It Later is great for power users or a nice introduction to someone currently using Safari's Reading List and looking for something more. The photo viewer opens and handles the top-tier image hosting services like Twitter, Yfrog, Twitpic, and even Instagram without needing to leave the program for your default browser. Viewing conversations is a snap with a dedicated button on all tweets that begin with @replies and when replying to a tweet you get a handy, if not slightly superfluous, view of the person and tweet you're interacting with.

As someone who prefers keeping my hands off the mouse as often as posible, I'm happy to see that there are straightforward keyboard shortcuts for nearly everything in Osfoora. You can gracefully switch back and forth between timeline, favorites, DMs, and more. It's simple to reply to a selected tweet or, if multiple people are involved, one extra key can reply to all. The one thing that boggled my mind within a few minutes of use was that Command + Return wouldn't send a tweet. This has been a common shortcut in most Twitter apps since Loren Brichter's groundbreaking Tweetie, so the absence of it really bummed me out. Luckily, I was informed that it's a setting you have to enable under Settings > Advanced. I hope the developer makes this the default behavior, especially since Command + Return serves little-to-no use in most other applications.

If you use Twitter for Mac, Reeder, Sparrow, Carousel, Mobile RSS, or any of their kin, you'll feel right at home in Osfoora.

If you're the sort of person with multiple internet personality syndrome, it's easy to maintain them all within Osfoora. You can switch between multiple accounts with a quick and memorable keyboard shortcut or with a few, perhaps one too many, mouse clicks. While we're on the topic on multiple accounts, everything about them is handled wonderfully with the exception of your first login, which requires authorizing the app via Twitter's website. This is a barrier that Twitter itself has created, so no app is above this (except their own, of course), but perhaps the Osfoora folks can create an experience that isn't so jarring for new users; a web view within the app, maybe? Twitter integration in Mountain Lion should do away with this problem as it did on iOS, but that's still a few months away. Regardless, that's a small complaint and you only see this happen once per account.

Some minor tweaks

I don't have any major complaints against Osfoora, but a few things I wish were changed: For one, the aforemention keyboard shortcut for sending a tweet should be the rule, not the exception. The other thing that seems a little strange is that, when composing a tweet, the character count doubles as a dropdown menu that allows you to clear your text. I'm not sure what problem that solves, but I find the character count's position to be distracting and the functionality contained within unecessary, especially when that real estate could be put to better use for something like an image preview on tweets where you add a picture. Finally, and this is a first, I experienced a limitation for how high I can resize the app window. My primary monitors are 30 inches with a resolution of 2560x1600 and I generally like to have my apps arranged in tall columns across my screen using Divvy. The maximum height Osfoora can be resized to is roughly 1225px, which isn't the end of the world, but just makes me wonder why. Most Twitter apps have a maximum width somewhere between 500-600px as well as a minimum height, but I've never heard of a maximum height. I guess we'll see if this capability gets added in a future version.

The King is Dead. Long Live the King!

The fact that I used Osfoora for longer than 15 minutes speaks volumes when compared to other Twitter apps. Better still is that I now use it on a daily basis in lieu of the official client. The additional features, slick interface, and responsive developer (he's already submitted a new version with bug fixes to the app store) tells me that Osfoora was $5 well spent. Give it a shot if you're looking for a great mix of speed, features, and ease of use.