There has been an explosion of new desktop Twitter clients recently. All of them offer some unique features.
I want a Twitter client to be lightweight and non-intrusive, like the old favorite, Twitterrific. However, it’s starting to show its age and it lacks a few features I want, such as showing replies & direct messages in a separate view.
Twhirl was my client of choice for a long time, although I prefer not using an Adobe AIR application. It has most of the features I want, except groups.
Tweetdeck does support groups, but it’s also an AIR application and it takes up too much screen space, as well as too much RAM & CPU time.
Eventbox supports Facebook, Flickr, Google Reader, and Reddit as well as Twitter. Although it’s very powerful, I find it too intrusive for regular use.
Nambu is my current favorite. It has almost the same features as Tweetdeck, although it’s a native application. It’s still in beta & currently has a few bugs, but I have high hopes for it.
Groups is an essential features for anyone who follows a lot of people on Twitter. If your home screen moves too fast, you can create a view of only the people you don’t want to miss to cut down on the noise.
Update: Jonas Wisser mentioned Bluebird, another one that’s still in beta. It has some unique features like themes, but it still lacks some features. I’m not really sure what the difference between the ‘all’ and ‘friends’ view is.
Don’t forget about Bluebird (bluebirdapp.com).
The difference between “all” and “friends” is that “friends” shows updates done only by people you follow, and “all” is, well, all (including your own tweets).
I used to use Nambu, then switched to Lounge for a bit (loungeapp.com/mac), and now I’m on Bluebird. The theming is nice. Also don’t forget the soon to be released Beak (beakapp.com)!