Twitter is often thought of as a mobile application, but the mobile version of the service that the company itself offers is maddeningly feature-bare. Users can’t read replies via m.twitter.com, for example.
If you’re looking for a good, full featured way to use Twitter on your phone – you need not look any further than Slandr. Hahlo.com is a close rival if you’re on an iPhone, but those iPhone owners get everything fun – don’t they? Let’s talk about Slandr for the rest of us!
So Much You Can Do
Slandr takes full advantage of the Twitter API, as far as I can tell. You can view replies and direct messages with a link, though not in the timeline as some other clients allow. You can do a Twitter search using the fantastic service Summize, something that Hahlo lets you do on the iPhone as well. You can also edit your location field in Slandr – something I haven’t see anyone else do. Then, you can view the locations of the last 20 friends who’ve tweeted. That has potential. Much of that potential is unrealized, but imagine a combination of Slandr and Twitterlocal (uptime pending) – now we’re really talking. A mysterious little birdy just told me that a related solution will be announced by a player in this space within hours. Awesome!
It’s Web Based
There’s lots of mobile Twitter clients that are Java apps but who wants more Java apps on their phone if there’s a web based alternative? I know I don’t.
Nice Touches
There’s a pretty funny message on the front page of Slandr, but I’ll let you find that for yourself. The service’s developer also offers to create custom back channels for events, combining Twitter, Jaiku, IM and SMS. We’re awaiting details about how that works.
There’s a long list of 3rd party Twitter apps that have been developed for any circumstance you can imagine, though many readers are probably still waiting for the “drunken app” that filters out misspellings, obscenities, messages about ex-lovers and messages about being drunk.
In the mean time, check out Slandr when you’re out on the town. You’ll probably like it.
If you’d like to join those of us here at RWW in conversation via Twitter, you can find us here.
