Behind The Scenes Of Twitterrific 5

The Iconfactory’s Craig Hockenberry has published a “behind the scenes” look at their most recent release, Twitterrific 5. I recommend reading it, as it doesn’t involve too many technical aspects of the software, but instead puts the decisions made by The Iconfactory in more context:

We are well aware that people are going to complain about missing features: push notifications and streaming are obvious examples. But so are trends, and video support, and in-line photos, and… well none of that matters. We believe in building opinionated software.

Our Cody Fink, in his review of Twitterrific 5 posted last night:

It may be completely redesigned, but the core tenets that Twitterrific were founded upon remain in 5. Twitterrific has always been opinionated, decidedly simple, and never wanted to compete for your attention. And at its heart, Twitterrific 5 is still a Twitter app built with the same passion The Iconfactory builds into all of their apps. Twitterrific 5 is simply a better Twitterrific.

Here’s my take on Twitterrific: it is the result of a very specific vision. The Iconfactory doesn’t prioritize notifications, filters, third-party service integration, or custom image uploads as much as they strive to build an extremely polished Twitter client meant for reading.

I am what you may call a “Twitter power user”. There’s truth to that: I use filters, custom uploads, web services, and I spend most of my day on Twitter. Twitterrific isn’t meant for me. Thinking to rely on it as my go-to Twitter client will probably make me frustrated in the end, leading me to “hate” an app that’s actually made by nice people. I don’t want to do that.

So I have a simple suggestion. If you don’t think Twitterrific 5 can be your main client, it doesn’t have to be. No one is forcing you to buy the thing everyone is talking about. You’re probably not “missing out”. But I will also say this: if you have three bucks and you’re genuinely interested in trying something new – a fresh experience – go get Twitterrific 5 and try it. I’m not saying it’ll become your favorite app, but if you care about quality handcrafted software, maybe you’ll take away something from it.

I’m glad I did, because even if Twitterrific won’t be in my dock, as someone whose job is to write about software, now I know that other things are possible.