Twitter Goes Back To The Future With Mobile App Update, ‘#Discover’ Still Just As Useless

Twitter has just launched a new app refresh for its mobile apps in Android and iOS, as well as expanded its offerings to the Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble NOOK.

Returning to the iOS and Android apps is the ability to swipe individual tweets to reveal tweet actions like ‘Reply, ”Retweet, ”Favorite’ and ‘Profile’ — a feature which was initially available in Tweetie, the app that eventually became Twitter for mobile, and then removed inexplicably. Another blast from the past is the ability to copy and paste text of tweets and user profiles, which I for one really missed.

One clear sign we live in a post-Pathgate world? The iPhone app now gives you a brusque, “We will securely upload your contacts to help you find friends and suggest users to follow on Twitter” notification when you try to find friends, buried deep under the ‘#Discover’ tab (which I’ll elaborate on in a moment).

In addition to the major changes above, Twitter has also added the ability change your font size and to tweet, copy and mail a link in a tweet or read a link later if you enable that setting.

While the design of Direct Messages has been further streamlined and now users can mark all as read, the feature itself is still disappointingly buried under the vague ‘Me’ tab. Sadly enough for those who find Twitter a superior short messaging platform, you still have to take two steps to get there, whereas old school Direct Messaging was given prime real estate with rest of the core functions.

You know what replaced easily accessible DMs (Grrr)? This terrible thing called #Discover, which I guess lets me view all the trending topics I don’t care about like the #Brit Awards #MardiGras or #SometimesWhenImBored.

Twitter, hear me out bro: I’ve never gone to #Discover with the intent of actually discovering something. In contrast, I visit my DMs about 20 times a day. How about you move the tab just for me? Pretty please.

Oh hell, I’m just going to download Tweetbot.

Update: Twitter’s Carolyn Penner helpfully points out that you can upswipe the “Me” section if you need to access your DMs sooner.

https://twitter.com/#!/cpen/status/172129688263729152