AppSuration and Unique Traits

Ben Brooks, on new Twitter client by TapBots, Tweetbot, says:

What is fascinating is that if you really boil an app like Tweetbot down, there is no innovative feature — there is not a single feature that you can point to and say: “yeah you only get that on Tweetbot”.

I am in complete disagreement with Ben here.

The main point about Tweetbot is that it has been crafted from the ground up to deliver the best Twitter experience.

From where I stand, Tweetbot’s UI and UX sure are unique features¹.

He goes further and says:

Yes there are uniques gestures, and taps, but those are all performing the same basic actions as other Twitter apps.

The last complaint I lodged against Tweetbot was that it just seemed like an incredibly beautiful wrapper that was put over the official Twitter app. That is, everything is too similar in layout and functionality 1 that it just seems like you are using the same old app with a lovely new theme applied.

With Twitter’s stance on third-party apps and its rather strict, so-called “display guidelines”, I am afraid third-party developers do not hold much choice with how far they are allowed to divert from the recommend path.

So, yes, Tweetbot is a mere wrapper for Twitter’s service. I will not discuss this. But I do believe it wraps over it quite nicely and effectively.

Sean Sperte, in his untitled post about Ben’s post, adds:

The problem I now have with Ben’s perspective is that he’s confusing UI style for UX style. For instance he’s quick to dismiss some of Tweetbot’s features (like swipe to view conversations or list-as-timeline) as “a wrapper”, but I think those are true features – original functionality, unique to the app.

Now, I agree.