It’s the big news of the week, HootSuite launched its official iPhone client, available in the App Store here. I’m still testing the application, but I had the chance to chat with the Hootsuite team, just after the application went live.
Enjoy!
- Hootsuite for iPhone is finally out in the AppStore. How long did it take for you to develop it? Which was the most difficult choice to make?
It took two months, maybe a bit more. It was difficult to choose which features to focus on for our initial release. There are so many things we want to do, but we needed to focus on what was important up front. We knew our users would love the elegant interface, scheduling and analytics.
- We know Hootsuite is a great web service for people who need to manage brand / small business on Twitter. Here comes the though question: do you think Hootsuite can be a companion of other apps such as Tweetie? I think yes, but I’d like to hear your opinion about the other Twitter clients available in the App Store.
We think HootSuite for iPhone is the ONLY Twitter app you need on your iPhone. We’re already serving many needs, and just wait to see what we have in store! If people want simple functionality it’s a tossup, but if they want to extend their experience (and soon, other networks) they will want to use us.
- The App Store. Do you think Apple could improve the whole approval process? Did you remove some features from Hootsuite mobile because you thought Apple “would not approve this”?
We would love to see more rapid approval. We are also building on Twitter, so if they change the foundation we have to respond quickly. The two week turn around is challenging. Some things were modified in speculation they *might have cause issues with the approval (e.g. icon design, naming, small things…) There was a bit of guesswork on our part, and we’re lucky it worked out so well and so quickly.
- One last thing. What can you tell us about the future of Hootsuite?
If you have seen the progression of the web version, you can probably expect the same thing with the iPhone app. It’s not done yet. With the iPhone app, we’ll be integrating social networks soon. (FB and LinkedIn). And per other applications, there’s a lot of other great stuff on the horizon… especially if your phone shares a name with a certain fruit.
At a high level, we’ll be working to maintain our spot as the number one web app for Twitter outside of Twitter.com. HootSuite.com will continue to evolve as a social media dashboard, adding new features to allow our valued users to manage their online lives from one hot-looking interface.
