A new version of TweetDeck for Windows and Mac hit the web today, courtesy of parent company Twitter, and we're glad to say the app is a significant improvement over Twitter's first attempt at fiddling with the social media client. TweetDeck v.1.3 now offers a host of new features including a list management function that allow you to create lists within the app without having to visit the web-based version.
To create a list, click the List button at the top of the screen and choose which of your linked Twitter accounts the list will be for. Add a name and a description of the list, choose the Twitter users you want to the list to follow and click save. want to add a user to an existing list, just click their name from your any other column and select Add or Remove from List. The feature is a much needed addition to the desktop client and will save a lot of users the headache of having to create lists from the web client.
The new Interactions column also adds the ability to see who has followed you, added you to a list, mentioned you or retweeted one of your tweets. You can also mark tweets as spam and unfollow other users. Also added to v.1.3 is the Activity column which updates you when someone you are following or follows you follows a new person, favorites a tweet, etc.
Our favorite addition to the desktop client is the new media preview feature. Now whenever someone tweets a photo or video, a small thumbnail preview will appear in line with the accompanying tweet. Clicking on the media will expand it to its original size. We definitely appreciate the inline preview since it makes knowing what you are really clicking on much easier, although we do wish the full-size view made the close button at the top of the screen easier to notice.
TweetDeck has also added an edit option to the retweet feature, which allows you to successfully edit another user's tweets before retweeting them. It's a small addition, but one that we like immensely. You can also choose to mark other users' tweets as spam, block them or delete them from the app, something that was frustratingly missing from Twitter's first TweetDeck effort.
What's Still Missing from TweetDeck 1.3
There are, however, still two things we don't like about the new TweetDeck. The first is the inability to add more than three columns to your stream on a single page. If you add more than three you'll have to click over to the next page. So you can't look at your update, mention, direct mention and activity streams on one page, something we would greatly prefer. On top of that, the Compose box functions as a popup box, instead of the bar-style Compose box old versions of the app used.
In general, the improvements to TweetDeck such as the inline media previews are appreciated, but overall we still prefer the older versions of TweetDeck, those available prior to Twitter's buyout, to the new version, especially since we could put as many columns on one page as we wanted. If you don't have a social media client you like already, we suggest downloading v.1.3, but if you still have the pre-buyout version 0.38.2 installed, we don't recommend that you upgrade.
Get a daily look at what’s developing in science and technology throughout the world.