5 Great Twitter Apps For the iPad

Twitter is quickly becoming one of the main social media services to promote your brand, sharing interesting links, and keeping in touch with others. Here we’ll take a look at 5 free Twitter apps for the iPad so you can tweet while on the go.

Official Twitter iPad App

The first one we’ll look at is the official Twitter app for iPad. It works great, but the user interface is unique compared to using Twitter on your site.

1. Install the Twitter app from the App Store via iTunes or directly from you iPad.

2. After it’s installed, launch it by tapping the icon and you’ll see that it’s nicely laid out for the iPad screen. It opens up to the Timeline by default.

3. On the left side you have access to your Timeline, Mentions, Messages, Lists, Profile, and Search.

4. Here’s an example of reading a list. It opens up in a new column on the right so you can easily keep track of people you follow based on your interests.

5. When you send a tweet, you’ll notice an interesting notepad paper UI. There are icons to add your location, an attachment, and shorten URLs.

6. Send your message and see it in your timeline on your iPad or online. The official Twitter App for iPad has an intuitive interface and is easy to use.

HootSuite for iPad

Another interesting Twitter app that includes additional features is HootSuite for iPad. It includes integration with Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare. It also includes Push Notifications, Message Scheduling, a built in URL Shortener, and more.

1. The first time you launch HootSuite, it opens up showing your Streams, Home Feed and Mentions in separate columns.

2. When you send a tweet you’ll have a control bar where you can do some different actions. Add a photo, your location, and schedule your message for a specific time which is a neat feature.

3. Tap on the settings to Add Accounts, manage preferences, and more.

4. In Settings tap on Social Networks and you can add other Twitter accounts, Facebook, and Foursquare. Just tap on the one you want to add.

5. Then sign in to the account you selected…here we’re adding Facebook.

6. It allows you to add or remove additional streams for you to monitor as well.

If you’re looking for a free iPad app for using Twitter that also includes cool extra features, HootSuite is a good choice.

Twitterrific for iPad

Twitterrific for iPad is another free (ad supported) twitter client for iPad. It has some interesting features like Instapaper – tap and hold a link to save it to Instapaper for reading later. Other features are the ability to filter tweets, translate tweets, and it works on both the iPhone & iPad so you have one app for both devices.

1. When it first launches you’re prompted to log into your Twitter account or create one if you don’t have one already.

2. After signing in you’ll get a list of all your streams, lists, favorites…etc..

3. Tap on the view profile icon to view your profile and go directly to recent or favorite tweets, your followers, and people you’re following.

4. Here’s an example of sending a tweet with Twitterrific. It’s easy enough like the other apps in this list. You can also add a photo, shrink URLs, and clear all text if you need to re-write the message.

5. The one caveat to Twitterrific is that the free version is ad supported.

4. You can use in-app upgrade to purchase the premium version for $4.99 which provides additional features and removes ads.

Overall, the free version of Twitterrific offers basic features, but having to deal with ads might turn some users off. Also, $4.99 for an upgrade to the Premium version is a bit expensive for what you get.

Echofon for iPad

Another free (but ad supported) Twitter app is Echofon for iPad. It’s easy to use with an intuitive interface. If using it over a Wi-Fi connection, it streams your Timeline…no need to refresh all the time.

1. Launch Echofon and you’re prompted to log into your Twitter account. It also has the option for you to follow them in your Twitter feed or not.

2. After signing in you’ll see your Twitter timeline and on the left you can select the different categories offered by Twitter.

3. While browsing through your stream…in this case @ Mentions…just tap the message and you can select from the menu of options.

3. Here I’m replying to my friend about geeky talk and you enable Geotagging or add a photo to the tweet.

4. If you’re going to use an @ Mention in your tweet, it brings up a list of people your following as you type…just like on the Twitter site.

5. This too is ad supported and is $4.99 as an in-app purchase to get rid of the ads and add extra accounts.

Like Twitterrific, Echofon free provides basic features for using Twitter on the go, but is ad supported. Also, you’re not able to see multiple columns at once like in HootSuite.

TweetDeck for iPad

TweetDeck has long been a favorite for many users on a desktop computer, and is now available for the iPad. It’s free and offers the familiar look and feel as the desktop version. You can set up multiple accounts, columns, shorten URLs, and more.

1. Launch TweetDeck, log into your Twitter account, and you’ll see multiple columns including All Friends, @ Messages, and Direct Messages.

2. There’s a control panel on the upper right corner where you can control Accounts and Settings, Refresh the page, Create a tweet, and add extra columns.

3. In Accounts and Settings you can setup an account, change picture services, enable Auto-Correct and a lot more.

4. Tap the Add Column icon, select the type of column you want displayed, then add it.

5. Tap the compose button to create a new tweet. The keyboard and New Status screen comes up and you can begin writing. At the bottom of the message screen there’s a control bar where you can add GeoTagging, photos, shorten URLs and more.

6. When you find a tweet you like, tap on it to bring up a menu of choices such as Retweet or Reply. TweetDeck for iPad handles Twitter very well, however it lacks adding other social networks like the desktop version. Their site mentions there will be more improvements and the ability to add other networks in version 2.0.

There are a lot of different Twitter apps for the iPad out there, and for this article we tried to bring you the best free ones. Each app is different so you’ll probably want to try each of them out to find the one that suites your needs.

If there’s one not covered here that you enjoy, leave a comment below and tell us about it. Or if you’ve tried any of these, we’d love to hear your thoughts about that too!

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