Osfoora for Twitter: A Review of Features in Version 1.2.0.1 for iPhone

March 23, 2010 - By Dieter Schweiss

After reading Justin E. Gehrke’s recent review of the Tweetie 2 application for iPhone, I purchased Tweetie 2 and installed it on my iPod.  I have to admit that I found its plentiful features very impressive, so much so, that I switched from using Echofon to Tweetie 2 as my primary Twitter app of choice.  And yet, there are some things about Echofon that I miss in Tweetie 2, such as being able to select from a list of people that I follow when composing tweets.

I still haven’t found that single Twitter app that does everything I want to, though. That is I hadn’t until I found Osfoora for Twitter….

Osfoora for Twitter

Enter Osfoora for Twitter by Said M. Marouf

This highly rated Twitter app has a list of features that rivals Tweetie 2′s, and is poised to give Tweetie 2 a run for its money.  Priced the same as Tweetie 2 at $2.99 in the iTunes App Store, and with a similar user interface, Osfoora has a lot to offer any potential purchasers.

Features in Version 1.2.0.1

The current version of Osfoora has a laundry list of available features, including (but not limited to):

• Support for multiple Twitter accounts.
• Home screen menu for ease of navigation (see screenshot below).
• Landscape mode support.
• Advanced attachment manager for adding multiple photos and videos to a single tweet.
• Save tweets as drafts.
• Support for both old- and new-style retweets.
• Customize Twitter profile settings within the app.
• Detailed user profile view.
• Manage lists within the app.
• View retweets by you, by others, your tweets that were retweeted by others.
• Support for geo-tagging of tweets.
• View nearby tweets on a map or in a list.
• View current and weekly trending topics.
• View the public timeline.
• Translate tweets.
• Instapaper/Read It Later integration.
• URL shortening with bitly or tinyURL.
• Support for yfrog and Posterous photos and videos.
• In app browser, e-mail, and image viewer.
• Customization of font size and refresh rate.

The list of available features alone was enough to convince me to give it a try, but how did it perform when I put it through its paces?

Osfoora Test Drive

I found Osfoora to be very intuitive to use.  The Home Screen (left image, below) is nicely laid out with large icons that clearly indicate their function.

Osfoora Home Screen, Composition Screen, and More Screen

The Composition Screen (center image, above) includes options for adding photos and music, user lookup, geo-tagging, hashtag lookup, and URL shortening; all very useful features.  I only used the user lookup and hashtag lookup features, so I’m not sure how well the other options work, but I appreciate being able to insert users and recently used hashtags without have to enter them from memory.  (Echofon and Tweetie 2 also have these options.)

The More Screen (right image, above) available from the Timeline view (not shown) gives access to following/follower management tools, such as user lookup and lists.  Also available are mentions, direct messages, and search options in a toolbar across the bottom of this screen.  I found theses screens to be very similar to the ones in Tweetie 2.   Also available from this screen is the Profile Screen (not shown), which includes basic Twitter information, such as how many tweets someone has, how many people they’re following, etc.  I found that very helpful when checking out my own Twitter stats, and when evaluating other people because I like to see how many tweets someone has made and how much they engage their followers when deciding whether or not to follow them.

Some other features that you may find useful are the ability to use the app in both portrait and landscape modes, support for saving tweets as drafts, and nearby tweets.  I first ran across the nearby tweets feature in TwitBird Pro for Twitter by NibiruTech (also currently $2.99 in the iTunes App Store).  In my opinion, TwitBird Pro does a better job than Osfoora with this feature.  Osfoora displays blue blips on its map, while TwitBird Pro displays avatars and it finds more nearby tweets than Osfoora does.  (Personally, I never use this feature because I find it to be very “stalkerish”.)

One thing that I would love to see Osfoora include is “gap detection”, which is a feature that Tweetie 2 and TwitBird Pro both have.  Gap detection allows you to detect and fill in breaks in your timeline.  For example, if you check your tweets in the morning and in the evening, your Twitter app most likely loads a maximum of 200 tweets each time.  With gap detection, your Twitter app would notice that you have a gap between your evening tweets and your morning tweets.  You could then fill in that gap by loading the missing tweets manually.

Final Analysis

Of the many Twitter apps for iPhone and iPod that I have used, I still have not found one single app that does everything I want, but Osfoora is in my top four, along with Tweetie 2, TwitBird Pro, and Echofon.  If you’re looking for a solid Twitter app with plenty of useful features, then Osfoora has them in spades, and I look forward to seeing how this app improves with its next update.