Battle of the AIR Apps: Twhirl vs. Alert Thingy
Today, the battle between the two most popular AIR apps as of late has begun. Yesterday, the FriendFeed AIR app, Alert Thingy, having only just launched on April 13th, was already getting an update - this one to include Twitter support via a built-in "Tweet" button. Not to be outdone, Twhirl wasted no time in providing an update of their own, seemingly crafting their updated version overnight. Now Twhirl includes FriendFeed support and Alert Thingy does Twitter, but are either of them really giving users what they want?
This morning, the news was all over the web. Arrington wrote a restrained review due to his ties to Twhirl, so the better analysis was found on other sites. Corvida of SheGeeks, for one, proclaimed that the new version of Twhirl was "not as bad as I thought;" Frederic of The Last Podcast, thinks "Twhirl still needs some polish as a FriendFeed client"; and of Brad of the Download Squad thinks "Twhirl has a much stronger Twitter client than Alert Thingy and Alert Thingy has a much more elegant FriendFeed interface."
However, we have to question whether either app is delivering users what they really want or if they are both just caught up in one-upping each other on features.
Yesterday's announcement of Alert Thingy's "Twitter support," for example, simply added a button that allowed you to tweet from the app, but the ability to reply via Twitter was still not present.
Meanwhile, today's Twhirl update - so new that it doesn't even come via the automatic update feature - introduces FriendFeed support, which displays in a separate window, essentially making it feel like you're running two applications anyway.
What neither app does is include all the features people want - a combined interface with the optional ability to pop-out into separate windows, replies via Twitter, and, of course, the duplication of FriendFeed's feature set in AIR form, such as the ability to do things like push "likes" to the top and display additional comments within the app.
Despite the rapid inclusion of new features and overnight updates, it appears that instead of pleasing fans, some people are actually becoming somewhat concerned. Take, for example, the comments on FriendFeed surrounding the update (from here and here):
- "I share your concerns about horses for courses and the fact that these tools may split and having done one thing very well, may end up doing many things poorly" - Andy C
- "With the latest reverse development, now it's chaos!" - Charlie Anzman
- "Urgh, 0.7.9 is really buggy. I'm going back to the current stable version." - Voyagerfan5761
- "AlertThingy and Twhirl are both driving me batty." - Carla Thompson
- "Two windows definitely not working for me...needs consolidation and twitter posting ability. ...via twhirl" - Adam Deyong
- "o great, now i've got two windows showing the same twitters... ...via twhirl" - Samuel Bostock
- "Why two windows? Can't they integrate to one UI? ...via twhirl" - Wayne Schulz
While it's entirely possible that future releases of one or both of the clients will do away with the inconveniences that are apparent now, we wonder if users would not be better served by slower to appear, major releases that include all the requested features instead of having to deal with the hassle of incremental, unfulfilling updates on an extremely fast-paced schedule.
Comments
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I think the competition is fantastic. Just as in any free-market, when companies seek to out-do each other (either in feature sets or price-wars), the customer ultimately ends up with better products from which to choose. Alert Thingy must now create a great app to steal market share away from Twhirl, and Twhirl must now create a great app to beat off Alert Thingy.
I don't see why so many people are upset by this fact; and complaining about the stability of an over-night, unofficial upgrade is just whining for no good reason. Let Twhirl release a stable, polished version and then review it.
Posted by: Aaron Forgue | April 17, 2008 12:47 PM
I was tempted to download Alert Thingy, but didn't and I'm glad. I like the new Twhirl FriendFeed support. Sure it has extra window (so glad I found a 17" monitor by the dumpster as a second one), but I like the feeling that I'm missing fewer tweets. I've commented more on FriendFeed items, because it's right there.
I turned the FriendFeed checks down (5 mins, might go to 10), just so I don't feel compelled to look often.
All in all I like this move to little apps like this.
Tris, MapleLeaf 2.0
Posted by: Tris Hussey | April 17, 2008 1:49 PM
Competition is good for everyone. Although in both applications I would personally disable notifications. Too distracting.
Posted by: funkyboy | April 17, 2008 3:06 PM
Well, checkout what Erik Schonfeld says on Techcrunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/17/web-30-will-be-about-reducing-the-noise%e2%80%94and-twhirl-isnt-helping/
It looks like an information overload...but in another way :)...
Posted by: Mircea | April 17, 2008 3:26 PM
remember Twitterific? Yeah... that's what happens when you develop slowly.
It's a nice product, but the hot new Twitter client is Twhirl - and they're very cognizant of how easy it is to be eclipsed in this space having just done it to Twitterific. So, bloggers, look in the mirror a bit - by driving rumors and the latest, greatest news you're partially responsible for an environment where a month is seen as a long time.
Posted by: rick gregory | April 17, 2008 4:21 PM
I don't use FriendFeed (hey, I only just moved back on to Twitter, cut me some slack). However, I find this development interesting in the broader context of a single app being used for multiple social services.
For example, ever since I downloaded Twhirl and started using Twitter again, I've almost completely abandoned Jaiku. This is not because I don't like Jaiku (I do like it) but Twhirl makes Twitter so easy to use. If Jaiku had a Windows desktop app that supported posting to the service as well as the threaded comments feature, I would quite happily use both.
I know that Twhirl allows me to push the same post to Twitter and Jaiku (and Pownce for good measure) but I want to be able to pick and choose what information I push to which service whenever I like.
I suppose an analogy (I'd say a 'good' analogy, but it probably isn't) is a single IM app that lets you chat to people over different IM protocols at the same time. Using an AIR app to do this has the added bonus of being easily cross platform.
I guess the current 'hot' services like FriendFeed would be assimilated first but I like to think that this is just the start of a broader unification of APIs.
If I could code and design worth a damn, I'd make one myself, but I can't so I'm dependent on someone else to make one for me.
Posted by: Shane | April 17, 2008 8:08 PM
there's another friendfeed air app called feedalizr
http://feedalizr.com
Posted by: gus | April 19, 2008 5:29 AM
Call me slow, but I refuse to use so many services. I recently started on Twitter and am going to stay on it for some time, and so Twhirl works just fine for me...
I hope they don't include any updates in Twhirl which changes the current experience.
Posted by: Vaibhav | April 19, 2008 11:10 AM
You should check out http://www.feedalizr.com a very nice AIR App for friendfeed. The latest update has a very cool filtering feature - makes it the one for me.
Posted by: Michael | May 5, 2008 5:54 AM