TweetDeck

You all enjoyed the trailer, but now the year's biggest blockbuster has arrived at last. iPhone TweetDeck v2.0 is here! 

In Hollywood they would call it a "re-imagining" - keep the essence of the original, but bring it bang up to date with a new team, top-class effects and plenty of scope for sequels. Ditch the camp soundtrack and overacting of Batman and Robin, and replace it with the cool car and new suit of Batman Begins.

With the all-new iPhone TweetDeck, we have done just that. Our team took the original iPhone app and distilled the essence of what made it so popular into a series of guiding principles. They then embarked on creating a brand new app from scratch, making use of all the latest technologies and design approaches, but all the while with an eye on those fundamental principles from the original.

After several months of feverish work, locked in the lab at the Batcave for hours on end, a new app was born. Like the change from Michael Keaton to Christian Bale, the new app is faster, more powerful, more flexible and, lets be honest, far more sexy.

We have put a huge amount of work into creating an app that embodies everything that is good about TweetDeck. Every aspect has been designed to work beautifully, from the big things like the swiping between columns, the navigation through user profiles and easy-as-pie Add Column flow, to the little things like the Pull to Update animations and the slick Follow/Unfollow slider.

And not only is new iPhone TweetDeck more beautiful, it offers a new flexibility that has never been seen before. Making the "pinch" gesture on a column give you access to options that will allow you to add any combination of your feeds into a column. Twitter timelines, Mentions, DMs Favourites, Lists, Searches, Facebook feeds....all can be blended together into columns that suit you. The Caped Crusader never had anything as cool as this.

Throw in retina-quality graphics and multi-tasking support and you have an app that really is the start of something special.

And of course, the app is totally free, which means you won't have to pull off any Joker-style bank raids in order to use it.

Downloading the app

You can download the iPhone TweetDeck v2 from the AppStore here.

The old TweetDeck apps have been temporarily removed from the AppStore as iPhone TweetDeck v2.0 is a brand new app, not an update, and we want to avert any confusion. However, the old apps will be updated soon to include a splash-screen directing you to download the v2.0 app.

iPad users, don't fret, your time will come! We are already working on optimising the new app for the iPad and we will be updating to a universal app in the next few weeks, once we have finished that work.

Help, support and feedback

Don't forget, this is only the start for our new app. We already have plans for point releases and will continue to update, fix and improve the app regularly. A key part of this process will be your feedback, which we always find hugely valuable. So please let us know what you think of the app, and alert us to any issues, via our dedicated Twitter account @iOSDeck.  We also have some support documentation here, which you might find useful to help you get started.

We hope you enjoy using this new generation iPhone TweetDeck. We really do feel it embodies the essence of what TweetDeck is, and look forward to being able to develop that further to bring you more features, more flexibility...and obviously more cowbell. 

Feature Overview

Here's a summary of the great features in iPhone TweetDeck v2.0

All-new design

The new iOS TweetDeck uses the same design themes and elements that were first introduced in our Android app, and followed through to or Chrome app too. 

The app has been built to fully support the new features of iOS4, so you'll find retina-quality visuals and multi-tasking support as standard.

Your Columns, your way

Of course all the standard twitter column types are available: Mentions, DMs, Lists etc. We have also brought combined columns to iOS, so you can add your Home, Me and Inbox columns to combine updates from all your accounts. But perhaps the most exciting column feature is that you can customise the feeds that appear in your columns as you wish.

In the Home, Me and Inbox pre-defined columns you can choose exactly which accounts will be used. In any other column, you can just mix and match feeds as you wish. So if you want to see DMs from one account, blended with your Facebook news feed, plus a couple of Twitter Lists, then you can do. Fancy blending a Twitter search, with your Mentions and Favourites? No problemo! 

You really do have the power to create totally flexible columns to suit your own needs. And every column has infinite scrolling, so you can easily go back and catch up on what you missed.

Long posts or short - it's up to you

Thanks to built-in support for Deck.ly, you can send long updates easily. Don't want to use Deck.ly? Just turn it off in the settings app

Get around with gestures

Pinch inward on a column to access column settings - for adding feeds, repositioning and deleting the column. Tap the status bar to jump to the top of the column. Pull a column down to refresh. 

Immersive discovery

Explore Twitter profiles by swiping through feeds. Navigate through to tweet details, follow links, reach though to related profiles. Add any feed as a column with just one touch. 

Follow the back-and-forth

The tweet detail view shows the full conversation, including, by pulling down on a tweet, any subsequent additions to the thread.

All the basics

All the standard Twitter functions that you expect are there: retweets, both old and new, replies, direct messages, favourites. And of course Facebook likes, comments and wall posts are a breeze.

Classy compose

The clean, fresh compose window offers posting from multiple accounts, photo uploads, geotagging, URL shortening and username autocomplete. And, as we mentioned above, long posts of more than 140 characters are possible thanks to Deck.ly integration.

A new foundation

iOS TweetDeck v2.0 has been built from the ground up to be stable and reliable, with frameworks in place to allow us to easily integrate new server-side processes like column sync as they are developed. 

For the last few months we have been working feverishly on something very very special for iPhone and iPad users. Something totally new. Something very exciting. Something imbued with #TigerBlood. It's our brand new TweetDeck app for iPhone and iPad and you're so going to love it.

Our Android app set a new level for not just mobile Twitter apps, but Android apps in general. Still gaining great reviews, Android TweetDeck also defined a new era of TweetDeck design, form and function. For our brand new iPhone/iPad app, we have taken this level of quality and innovation and built in a whole bucketful of magic to create a TweetDeck app that will raise the bar for iOS apps just like we did for Android.

This totally new, fully iOS4-compatible TweetDeck app has been built completely from scratch. It is not only the most powerful and flexible mobile app we have ever produced, but also the most jaw-droppingly beautiful. This is the app your retina display has been crying out for.

A major new feature of iOS TweetDeck will be totally flexible columns. You want to create a column blending your Mentions and some Twitter Lists? No problem! Always wanted to see your Facebook feed and Twitter DMs in a single column? We’ve got you covered! New iOS TweetDeck puts you in control of your columns, giving total flexibility over which feeds appear in which columns. Your social world has never been so personal.

We are currently doing a final round of testing with the app and we aim to be submitting it to the App Store in the next couple of weeks.(See UPDATE below). You can, however, get your hands on the app before anyone else if you are visiting this year’s SXSW. Just look out for Iain and Steve, who will be in Austin, and have 50 invites to give away allowing early access to the app via TestFlight. And not only that, but they will also be doling out TweetDeck gear in the form of exclusive T-shirts, stickers, badges, fluffy birds, and any other swag they can stuff in their luggage! We'll announce more details about this soon.

So if you are a die-hard TweetDeck fan, patiently waiting for a new app, we thank you sincerely for your patience. The reward will be well worth the wait.

If you’re planning on being first in line to grab an iPad 2 and want a kick-ass app for your new kick-ass tablet, you know where to come.

Or maybe you are dissatisfied with your current app and want to search for something new. 

Stop looking, stop waiting. Start winning, with new iOS TweetDeck.

UPDATE 31/03/2011

Testing has taken us slightly longer than we thought (meaning you're going to get an even better app!), but we will be submitting the app to Apple in the next few days. Thanks for your patience - the wait is nearly over :)

UPDATE 14/4/2011

So, there were a few more issues that needed clearing up before we submitted, but finally we have done it. The app is now submitted to Apple and all is in their hands. Fingers crossed it all goes well!

So we just launched our awesome new Deck.ly service, allowing you to send messages of unlimited length to Twitter, should you so desire. You'd think that was enough awesomeness for now wouldn't you?

Well think again, TweetDeck fans!

Not only did we add Deck.ly support, but we also added a selection of other features and fixes across our Chrome, Desktop and Android apps too.

The full changelogs are all available here, but lets take a quick look at some of the highlights...

Chrome

Image previews in the app

We now provide an in-app preview for a host of major image and video services, including YFrog, Twitpic, Instagram & Youtube. When you click to open a supported media type, the image or video will open in a preview window inside the app. You can click to view the media on the host site, as well as "share" the link, which drops the URL into the compose box for you.

Access Comments from Facebook Notifications

You can now view and add comments on Facebook updates direct from the notification in your Me (and "Notifications") column. When you get a new Facebook notification update, eg "Fred just liked your post", you can now click the comment button and you will be taken to the comment thread for the item in question.

Translated into 11 languages

Chrome TweetDeck will now match your system language for those using: English UK, Brazilian Portugese, Dutch, French, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portugese & Spanish. There is no language setting in TweetDeck itself, it will just utilise the system language set by your operating system.

Better layout of Facebook attachments

Facebook news feed updates that contain attached links are now much clearer. The link is highlighted with a special icon so distinguish it from the message itself.

Desktop

In-app previews for Instagram images

Hipsters of the world can finally see their favourite 1970's style photos shown in all their glory in an in-app preview preview window.

Some tweaks and touch-ups

Including important fixes for issues with the Facebook authentication page & Twitter List updates.

Android

A few fancy fixes

Including:

• Scrolling under Honeycomb
• Previewing Intragr.am links containing _
• Use the correct account when replying

Look out for lots more updates coming over the next weeks and months, especially on Chrome and Android.

And of course, our fantastic brand-spanking-new, iOS4-compatible app is getting closer to completion and we expect to have more news for you on that very soon.

Watch this space!