Twidroid vs HootSuite Lite

Now it may seem unfair comparing an app that has had time to develop into what is has become vs one that has just launched itself on the market - excuse the pun - but it's there. I am fairly addicted to Twitter now so it seems fair for me to play with with both and see which suits my style and choose the winner.

HootSuite Lite

The bird has turned into a robot covering version 1.6 upwards which thank god meant I could use it on my HTC Magic. I'm an AVID HootSuite fan and use it everyday... at work. I can monitor my personal stream and the company I'm working for. The great thing about it; scheduled tweets and the owl.y shortner which is one of the best in the business for tracking your URLs and accessing stats. It just works and it's extremely easy to use, especially when explaining work colleagues how to use it. That brings me onto another point, multiple editors on your Twitter stream via HootSuite. I'm blabering on but you get the drift. I are a fan.

But here comes the but. HootSuite Lite is okay. It's not fantastic and it hasn't blown me away. It does its job. Home screen is like everything else; everyone you follow. To get to the profile you need to access your specific stream, so you have to go back to go forward. Once I'm where I need to be the tabbed options are now at the top of the screen only thing is, they aren't that explanatory. Let me explain; the people you follow, your followers and your lists all have the same icons. Shouldn't you differentiate? Once I have a diddle daddle on my stream, I pressed my 'back' button only to exit the application thinking it would take me back to my stream page, so I had to restart it.

Image: Mashable

I quickly jotted down a list as to what works and what doesn't while I opened the app.

The good:

• Big text
• Streams for multiple profile use
• The ow.ly shortner for tracking the URL which only works if you pay $1.99 for the upgrade
• Image platform to ow.ly, again helpful with tracking
• And a feature that will be on both pro and con; the Ads by 140 proof which is integrated into your tweets shown

Needs work:

• The 'back' button option without it closing
• Tabs need a major work and need to be a stable feature
• Ads by 140 proof - people may get irritated
• Going between streams and profiles - going back to go forward at times
• Tabs aren't really helpful at all. One icon for following, followers and lists

So where do I think it lies? It's going to take a bit of work for it to get up to the level where twidroid is, especially as a free app.

Twidroid

I've used twidroid for about 5 months now and have been extremely happy with it. The developers are constantly updating it and making it the best it can be. As a free app, it's definitely one of the best on the market and extremely popular on the ever growing Android market with 400K in downloads. Unlike HootSuite, you don't get the option to have multiple streams and will need the PRO for it but that is what I can use Lite for should I need to tweet off my phone for work. I don't have many cons for twidroid but as it stands the only real issue at times is the text size with regards to the layout of the homepage and your profile pages. Anyone with a bit of an eyesight problem is going to battle.

Image: twidroid

Why I use it?

• Tabs are at the bottom and the icons differentiate what the options are
• Image uploading is simple and quick
• The option to follow or unfollow while on a profile
• Easy menu options as in one click and I am where I need to be.
• Option to RT with a comment
• Usability is probably the best word in my opinion

Again, it needs to be reminded that twidroid have had time to develop the app but then again, HootSuite which is a pretty big player in the game, should have had a proper play around on all the Android Twitter apps out there and developed a competitive app to what the best is; again in my opinion; twidroid

It's definitely going to get interesting between twidroid and HootSuite, especially if the Lite version can up it's game to get to where the twidroid free app is sitting; as an Android twitter app leader.

Enough of what I have to chirp about. If you're an Android user, let me know what your opinion is on the best Twitter app out there?