There was a time when I’d swear by Tweetbot. Tapbots’ quirky iOS Twitter client won a ton of people over way back in 2011 with its blend of smart design and strong personality — for a time, I’d have called it the best way to use Twitter.

But as Twitter tightened the noose around third-party developers' necks and denied them access to new features, it’s been harder and harder to use anything but the official client. I keep both around, but use Twitter’s own app more often than not.

Well, now Tweetbot 4 is here. And after having used it for a couple of days, I’m going to switch back.

The Activity tab is a big new feature

Tweetbot 4 is a new, universal app for iPhone and iPad. The iPhone version isn’t wildly different to 2013’s Tweetbot 3 — there are some swish new animations, a redesigned profile page, and a landscape mode, but it’s more or less the same experience.

One big new feature, though, is the Activity tab. A major reason I find myself falling back to official Twitter clients is the way they collate notifications in a single stream; you can see who’s followed you, mentioned you, retweeted you, or favorited one of your tweets in one convenient feed. That data hasn’t been available to third-party Twitter clients ever since the company moved away from a basic mentions stream, but Tapbots has engineered its own Activity solution in what co-founder Paul Haddad tells me was "tons of work."

Tweetbot 4 doesn’t totally replicate Twitter’s functionality here — each notification is its own item in the stream, whereas Twitter groups together things like favorites and follows. But it’s still a big step forward that makes it easy to check up on your activity. Another feed called Stats helps in the same regard, providing you with charts and figures about how people are interacting with your account.

The biggest change in Tweetbot 4, though, is the completely revamped iPad app. Tapbots has neglected the iPad ever since Apple went in a new design direction with iOS 7, leaving the gradient-heavy Tweetbot 2 app looking severely out of date. I don’t know if I’d say Tweetbot 4 has been worth the wait, exactly, but it’s at least come at a good time — Twitter’s official new iPad effort is a disastrous blown-up phone app, and iOS 9’s iPad multitasking is perfectly suited to Twitter clients.

The iPad app has two columns in landscape mode, the smaller of which can show your Stats or Activity feeds. The app has an incredibly clean, minimalist design, with all the sensible tweaks and touches to the Twitter interface that Tweetbot users have come to know. Returning to Tweetbot full-time, now that I can use modern versions of the app across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, is like revisiting an old friend. Multitasking support is a particular highlight — Tweetbot is going to spend a lot of time pinned to the edge of my iPad Air 2’s screen.

Tweetbot works how Twitter should work

Tweetbot just works the way I feel like Twitter should work. The timeline is perfectly chronological, with no confusing "While you were away" tweets or blue lines between conversation partners. There are no ads, because Twitter doesn’t allow them in third-party clients. Instagram photos display inline without issue. It syncs with a Mac app. The Mac app isn’t a deprecated piece of junk. The list goes on.

There are still some areas where Twitter’s official clients work better. Tweetbot doesn’t support Twitter Cards, for example, meaning you often won’t see rich media or web previews embedded in tweets. And if you want to see who favorited a certain tweet, Tweetbot still boots you to favstar.fm, which is not a great experience.

But especially on the iPad, Tweetbot has pulled back in front for my personal needs. It’s a slick, no-nonsense app with a ton of thought put into it, and by making it universal and adding the Activity feed, Twitter’s going to have to do a lot to bring me back to its own apps.

Tweetbot 4 is available now for a limited launch price of $4.99, down from $9.99. After the sale is over, Tweetbot 3 owners will still be able to pick up 4 at a discount; Tapbots will sell 3 and 4 in a $9.99 bundle, meaning the price you paid for 3 will be taken off the cost of 4. Either way, you'll need to pay at least $4.99.