(Part 1) The Android Twitter Client Showdown

2016-12-06

Falcon Pro, Talon, Flamingo and Fenix go head to head

I've been using Twitter for a long time now. I first signed up in October of the year 2010, four years after the initial launch. I've used is fairy regularly, with a total of 14,800+ tweets and have met a fairly wide range of people on the platform. I don't claim to be an expert, or even well know on the platform (276 followers is hardly "famous"). But, over the years, I have garnered much experience with different Twitter clients, starting with the web client as it was back in 2010, then moving to the official Twitter app on my old 1st generation iPad (no, not pro or anything... 1st gen iPad). Somehow I stumbled onto Tweetbot, which became my defacto (and still is, if I used iOS) Twitter client for iOS.

But back to the point. Over the next few weeks, or indeed months because I have a busy few coming up, I will be taking a few Android Twitter clients for a spin: Talon, Flamingo, Falcon Pro 3, and Fenix. All three of these apps offer fast, customizable experiences for Twitter, perhaps not with features on par with the official Twitter app, but you can blame the fact Twitter is locking down their API big time [Forbes, ITWorld].

My methodology is pretty straightforward. During the month of December, I will use each one for one week, testing and prodding each one to unlock the depths. Then, once all (four) have gone through the gauntlet, I will then allow myself the freedom of choice -- whichever one I find myself using the most will be the "winner".

Initial Impressions

All four of these support multiple accounts, however with Falcon Pro there is a small caveat, which is for each account you want to add you are required to purchase a new "account slot", which is about $2. The initial purchase to add one account is on par with the rest of the apps, about $5, Talon coming in at $3.99, Fenix at $6.49, and Flamingo coming in at $2.79, the cheapest and also the newest of the four (all prices USD). Each one features material design, interestingly enough in a variety of styles. Each app has it's own customization, each with it's own advantages. Flamingo feels the most tweakable, letting you set your own colours for basically everything. Falcon Pro is by far the least customizable, however that is not necessarily a bad thing depending on your use case and how much you enjoy fiddling with settings.

Album of each Twitter client's interface

"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson