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Carbon: The Twitter app made in Dubai

It’s become one of those conversation topics, which you can always pull out when there is awkward silence: what Twitter app do you use?

Much like pondering about how the weekend was or what the weather is like, the question about one’s preferred tool to soothe the Twitter addiction is heard everywhere these days. And the answer is often very telling and interesting.

Some users stick to the Twitter.com web site, which I use too from time to time. Twitter has done a good job of packing functionality into the site, but it’s also missing things like no quote retweet and support for multiple accounts (as you would expect). Then there’s the official Twitter app, which got a total refresh not long ago and although it works well I have not yet taken to it. It basically captures Twitter’s website look, feel, and functionality in an app, and I’m not convinced that’s the way to go. I can only hope that Twitter has a plan for the road ahead because I don’t see it based on its app.

Lately I have been using Tweetbot on both my iPhone and iPad. Overall I like it but, as the name suggests, it does feel a bit mechanical. But I like how it works, it’s fast, and makes my Twitter experience better.

However, when an app called Carbon makes it to iOS, I strongly suspect it will be my Twitter app of choice. Carbon is actually a growing family of Twitter apps, created by Dubai-based dots & lines. Carbon actually debuted last year for webOS, HP’s ill-fated operating system for smartphones and tablets. Dots & lines brought out a version of Carbon for both platforms right before HP decided to kill of its smartphones and tablets, and now webOS faces an uncertain future as open source.

Just a couple of weeks ago Carbon for Windows Phone was released and it has received great reviews from around the world. In fact, it’s number one in many markets around the world.

Saleh Esmaeili, User Experience Designer and Producer at dots & lines, told me that the Windows Phone version of Carbon will soon also be available for other platforms. The Android version is ready to go into testing and iOS will follow shortly. He added that the team is looking at tablet versions too, for Android, iOS, as well as Windows 8.

When Carbon makes it to iOS, it will face some tough competition, but if the webOS and Windows Phone versions are anything to go by, the app will revitalize the Twitter experience on Apple’s mobile OS, something that can only be positive for users.

So that’s for my mobile devices but what about on my Mac? For work I use Sprout Social but for my personal tweeting I currently like Osfoora, it’s fast and full of functionality.

Why don’t we meet up on Twitter and you can share what your favorite Twitter app is?

Magnus Nystedt @mnystedt

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