It had to happen eventually. Twitter for iPhone (previously known as Tweetie 2) is one of the best Twitter apps for the iPhone.  It’s jammed packed with features but with some really nice UI elements that don’t give you that feeling of overload.  But a couple of weeks back I switched to using Seesmic for the iPhone just to try it out.  I don’t see myself going back anytime soon.  Even though I miss some of the nicer UI elements of Twitter for iPhone, Seesmic is a nice app that actually allows me to use it to replace 2 apps with it on my front screen.

It’s Twitter, it’s Facebook, it’s BOTH

The first thing I noticed when I fired up Seesmic for the first time was that it handled Twitter and Facebook.  Initial thoughts included “well if this can do Facebook too, well I might be able to move Facebook off my front screen too” and while the Facebook implementation isn’t 100 percent, it is definitely good enough that I can use it 98% of the time.

Seesmic for iPhone also handles Twitter searches and lists.  It has a nice interface that allows for separation of the various lists and networks that doesn’t come off as cluttered (the way TweetDeck for iPhone did for me).  With Seesmic, I’m able to switch between my Twitter timeline, Facebook news feed, and various lists/searches.

Navigation

One of the cooler things I like about Seesmic is that to navigate between Twitter, Facebook, Ping.FM, and various Twitter lists and searches is that I simply have to swipe left/right depending on where I am in my “tabs” (or tiles).  However this means that the Twitter for iPhone feature that allows you to swipe a tweet is gone (this was one of my favorite features of Twitter for iPhone).  Even though it means I lose a feature, this one feature makes Seesmic extremely efficient.  I can jump between accounts and lists with the greatest of ease.  When I pick up my iPhone to check Twitter, I’m almost always going to check Facebook too, now I can do it in one app and with just a small swipe of the finger.

I have to say though that I do find myself missing the Twitter for iPhone tweet swipe shortcut for replying and favoriting tweets.  On Seesmic this is at least 2 screen presses, and while that might not seem like much, coming from the official Twitter app it just feels clunky.  However, I understand the reason this can’t be done in Seesmic and do not overly fault them for it.  They mad an UI decision and theirs works and is quite efficient, just in a different way and for a different purpose.

Overall

Overall, I think I’ll probably keep Seesmic on my front screen for a good while longer than originally anticipated.  That’s saying something because I’ve tried a lot of iPhone Twitter apps and not a single one was able to dethrone Tweetie (as it was known at the time).  I still thing Twitter for iPhone is a fantastic product and if you’re looking for a good Twitter app, you’d be hard pressed to find one better.  I wouldn’t say that, in the end, Seesmic is better than Twitter for iPhone but it does have certain features for a “power user” that can clear some icons off the front screen.  If you use both Twitter and Facebook with extreme regularity then you need to be taking a hard look at Seesmic for iPhone.