The field of Twitter clients for Windows has been culled over the years, but there are still a few developers working hard on some killer apps. Aeries has stuck out with us as an impressive Twitter client capable of keeping up with professional needs with a Universal Windows app.
A couple of months ago, our previous favourite Twitter client for Windows, TweetDeck, was discontinued. We’ve updated our pick below with a new Windows app. However, if you’re a TweetDeck loyalist, check out the Competition section below for more information on where that app has gone.
Aeries
Platform: Windows
Price: $3.69
Download Page
Features
- Manage dashboards and tweet from multiple accounts
- View multiple columns, including timeline, mentions, profile and lists all at once
- Group lists together into a single column, to easily swap between multiple lists
- Customise image size, font size and colour scheme to your preference
- Filter people, keywords, hashtags and tweets sent from certain Twitter clients
- Save read positions in columns
- Customise touch and mouse gestures
- Bookmark tweets for later
- Save custom searches, pin searches to your home screen
- Universal Windows app works across all Windows platforms
Where It Excels
For starters, Aeries gets a few points simply for being a Windows app at all. As we discuss in the competition section below, our previous pick TweetDeck still exists as a web app, which has its own strengths and weaknesses. If you’re still happy with TweetDeck as a web app, you can probably skip ahead. However, a local Windows app offers a few benefits: It can download tweets to read when you go offline, it can integrate with Windows’ Notification Center and, when Xbox integration for the Windows store arrives, you’ll be able to use it on your console as well. If any of those things matter to you, Aeries is an obvious pick.
Much like TweetDeck, you can view multiple columns at once in Aeries, allowing you to see your timeline, your mentions and your lists all in one view. Unlike TweetDeck, the column grouping makes a little more sense. Rather than having one whole column for each list, for example, you have a Lists column.
At the top of the Lists column, you’ll see a carousel of your lists, allowing you to quickly jump between them in that same column. It saves a ton of space for a social network that can use a lot of it. Similarly, you can easily cycle between your mentions, messages and retweets in the same space, rather than having to add an individual column for each one. There’s also a sidebar that allows you to quickly jump to different lists or views.
Aeries also allows a ton of customisation. You can independently adjust font and image sizes to make the most of your screen’s real estate. You can also tweak gestures to your preference. For example, you can set a single mouse click to view tweet details, open a quick reply box or like a tweet. This customisation can come in handy for power users. The search function also allows you to save certain search parameters to easily look them up later. You can even pin certain searches to your home screen to easily keep an eye on them.
Where It Falls Short
This may fall under personal preference, but Aeries’ filtering options are applied across the entire app, rather than allowing a user to filter only certain columns or lists. If you want to apply filters across every column in one place, then this should be in the above section. However, if you’re like me and prefer to have the flexibility to selectively filter your lists, this is kind of a drag. On the upside, Aeries allows you to set an expiration date for filters, which is super handy for avoiding spoilers without having to remember that you filtered a topic.
On the objectively bad side, Aeries lacks the ability to schedule tweets. For anyone who manages multiple Twitter accounts — especially for work — this is a pretty big downside. Tweeting from multiple accounts also requires switching dashboards, rather than simply clicking a different account thumbnail, like in TweetDeck. It’s a minor quibble, but when you use it every day, a minor annoyance can turn into a big deal.
Aeries’ price point is also something of a sticking point, but we’re willing to tolerate it thanks to Twitter’s token limit weirdness. Simply put, if too many people use a Twitter client, new users get locked out. Having a $3.69 charge at the door, on top of paying the developers for their hard work, helps ensure that the people who sign up and nab those tokens are at least the ones willing to pay to use it.
The Competition
Finding competition for Twitter clients is tough as long as the company keeps adhering to its token limit nonsense. Aeries takes the top spot for being an actual Windows app and for having a few nice features that the competition doesn’t. That being said, the Twitter-owned TweetDeck (Free) still works great in Chrome. Plus, you know, it’s free. TweetDeck and Aeries are functionally very similar, with only a few minor differences between them. Chiefly, you can schedule tweets and tweet from multiple accounts with fewer clicks.
The major downside (for some people anyway) is that TweetDeck now only works on the web or as a Chrome app. Chrome makes it easy to run tabs as standalone windows, but for all other browsers, it can be annoying moving from a dedicated app to a single TweetDeck tab.
If you want a dedicated Windows app, the official Twitter app (Free) also works really well. It’s also much simpler than either TweetDeck or Aeries. You have a single column view, even on the desktop. You can switch to see your notifications or messages and compose your own tweets just like you do on mobile. If you don’t need all the professional-level features of Aeries or TweetDeck, Twitter’s official Windows app is surprisingly competent.
Lifehacker’s App Directory recommends the best applications and tools across multiple platforms.
Comments