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Topic: Windows 8

Twitter for Windows 8, Windows RT now in the Windows Store

Summary: Twitter's native client for Windows 8 and Windows RT is available for download, as of March 13.

Mary Jo Foley

By for All About Microsoft |

One of the biggest shortcomings of Windows 8 and Windows RT has been the lack of fully-functioning Twitter clients for the product.

twitterwin8

There have been a few different options, including my Windows 7 Twitter-client favorite, MetroTwit, that have debuted for Microsoft's latest operating system. But in my opinion, none of them has worked very well -- for a variety of reasons.

On March 13, Twitter announced the promised native Twitter client for Windows 8 and Windows RT was available for free in the Windows Store. Here's thedownload  link.

The new app includes built-in support for the Windows Share charm, Search charm, Snap view and Live tiles notifications. Here's hoping (as I'm downloading it) that it's good.

If it's not, I've found the Web version of Tweetdeck to be OK.

Twitter recently updated its native Windows Phone 8 client.

I'm curious what other Windows 8 and Windows RT users have found to work for them in terms of Twitter clients.

Topics: Windows 8, Microsoft, Tablets, ARM, PCs, Microsoft Surface

About

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

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Talkback

9 comments
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  • Not working!

    Once I press on "sign in" nothing happens. So all I get to see is Hello. Welcome to twitter.
    Yay me XD
    Youssef Samir
    Reply Vote

    • Scroll down?

      I entered my name and clicked on authorize, invalid username/password, then I noticed, that the password box wasn't displayed on the screen and I had to scroll down to see it. Bit of a fail!

      Then it crashed, once I'd logged on. :-(

      Not a good start. Hopefully it can only get better.
      wright_is
      Reply Vote

    • Working Fine

      Sorry to hear that.
      I installed it yesterday night on a Surface RT and it has been working flawlessly. For the moment at least.
      TheCyberKnight
      Reply Vote

  • Well done

    I have tried most, if not all, of the various Twitter apps on Windows 8 and have found them all lacking. Each had glimmers of promise but had some feature that was sub-par that left the web a preferable experience.

    On every device I have owned the worst Twitter app was, without fail, Twitter's own app. This left little hope for this new app but once I logged into this one I was struck by how clean it looked. Gone were the multiple columns of text or boxes and bubbles of the various other apps and instead was a single simple column of my feed with attractive icons on a side bar that match the flat design aesthetic of Win8.

    Snapped to the side of the screen, a perfect place for Twitter to live while you work or play, the commands shift to a top bar leaving maximum room for tweets. As with full screen it avoids all the flare and trying too hard of the other apps and just gives exactly what is needed a clean simple listing of tweets.

    I can't believe it but the best app for Twitter on Windows 8 thus far has been made by Twitter. Will wonders never cease?
    Brazbit
    Reply Vote

  • twitter

    No problem here. The App on Win 8 Pro 64 bit works like a charm
    kg4icg
    Reply 1 Vote

  • I found this article using the Twitter app...

    Just sayin'... ;)
    newyorkcitymale
    Reply Vote

  • Impressed so far!

    I have just downloaded it and it is the best Windows 8 version of Twitter by far. Very clean and nicely designed interface. Thought has definitely gone in to making it a true Windows 8 app. All we need now is an official Facebook app. One thing I can't seem to do is set the background colour, even the light blue website Twitter background would be better than grey. The updating is better than the third party's, as it doesn't just give your the new tweets but actually the ones already received in the past by the web site. I'm not sure whether having more than one main column is a good idea, although filling the empty space with perhaps the information box on who your following etc. might have been nice. The best bit is being able to app switch the app though, with all the other metro apps. Switching between IE10 metro with it's page switching tabs and the metro app switching panel is driving me nuts. I keep switching page when I want an app and switching app when I want a different web page. It requires real concentration.
    Simon68
    Reply 1 Vote

  • Twitter and Win 8

    I don't have a Windows RT machine. I've been using MetroTwit desktop on Windows 8. A quick tire-kicking of the new Twitter for Win 8 client has induced me to give it a good workout (and install it on my other Win 8 machine). Comparing MetroTwit desktop vs Twitter for WIn 8, there are things I prefer about each of them.

    Note: when abandoning a Twitter client (except Twitter's own), remember to deauthorize the client you abandon to free up a token count for the developer.

    One clear advantage of the official client is that it should keep working through Twitter's arbitrary and capricious API changes, whose purpose seems to an outsider to be intended to drive developers away.
    John Baxter
    Reply 1 Vote

  • Keep finding new great features

    I have just discovered that clicking on a tweet displays it in an overlay popup window, much better than the website expanding it. Some of the tweets seem to not be in the right time order, maybe that happened with the website too, could it be due to re-tweeting? I haven't found a way to customise the background colour or bitmap either yet, unfortunately. The way they have implemented the split screen view is brilliant. I think the official version is always going to be the best, because they can change the site to make it work with their clients better. They are also restricting the number of users that can sign up with third party's.
    Simon68
    Reply Vote
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