Top Free Desktop Twitter Clients

Life on Twitter -- the undisputed king of microblogging -- is fast paced and can be overwhelming at times. If you’re relatively new to Twitter and find visiting Twitter’s website to stay in touch with your friends and feed cumbersome, here are some very good Twitter clients that will keep you on top of every tweet -- for free.

TweetDeck: TweetDeck (an Adobe AIR desktop client) is one of the most comprehensive Twitter client out there for your desktop, and hordes of Twitter users swear by the app. TweetDeck takes enormous amounts of Twitter data (subjective to how large your ‘following/follower’ list is) and presents it in easily digestible chunks. It has a very good interface: TweetDeck arranges your Twitter feed into customizable panes -- default panes include your tweets, your friends and followers, and stuff that TweetDeck recommends.

It not only supports simultaneous multiple Twitter accounts and real-time updates, but also the ability to manage your Twitter friends and contacts into groups -- a lifesaver if you have over a hundred Twitter accounts to follow. With TweetDeck, you can view YouTube videos, schedule tweets to go live at a set time, automatically convert URLs into short links, save searches, and do a lot more. The list of features is exhaustive; suffice to say that TweetDeck is the most feature-rich Twitter desktop client I’ve come across.

In short, if you want to stay on top of Twitter, TweetDeck is a must try. Note: before installing TweetDeck you will need to have Adobe AIR installed on your PC.

Download TweetDeck

Seesmic: Seesmic is another desktop Twitter client you need to check. It has an appealing translucent interface and some interesting features. Part of Seesmic’s allure is its left navigation bar that contains self descriptive tabs like All, Accounts, Userlists, and Searches -- these bunch together commonly accessed Twitter features very well.

Seesmic deals with your Twitter feeds and timeline pretty well. Click on the ‘All’ tab to show the Twitter accounts you’re logged into. Click on any one account and its tweets load instantly in the first column. Clicking on mentions, private, sent, etc, immediately displays tweets related to those actions in subsequent columns. Two view options are available in Seesmic -- single or multiple columns. And if you’re someone who likes multiple Twitter accounts displayed in multiple columns, Seesmic is just right -- it can display an unlimited number of columns. You can easily drag and drop columns, arrange them the way you like in Seesmic. The desktop client also lets you search Twitter with a dedicated top-right search box (like search engine bars in most browsers).

In terms of desktop Twitter clients, TweetDeck and Seesmic users are often in opposing camps. Our advice: if you gave TweetDeck a try, also check out Seesmic before settling down with the one you like best.

Download Seesmic

Twhirl: A compact, lightweight Twitter client for Windows and Mac OS X, Twhirl appears just like a standalone instant-messaging program like Google Talk or Yahoo Messenger.

Twhirl supports multiple Twitter accounts at once -- every Twitter account opens with its own, self-contained window. You can not only tweet in text but Twhirl allows you to upload images and videos to yfrog and tweet about it. Twhirl also displays a pop-up notification for every Twitter update, and allows you to shorten URLs while tweeting.

Twhirl isn’t as comprehensive as TweetDeck or Seesmic, but its core appeal lies with its lightweight, compact interface. Give it a shot.

Download Twhirl

DestroyTwitter: Like TweetDeck, DestroyTwitter is another Adobe AIR based Twitter client. DestroyTwitter has a color scheme that’s easy on the eyes and a desktop screen space that’s slightly larger than Twhirl.

Apart from the standard Twitter features, DestroyTwitter lets you filter out keywords or users from your Twitter feed. It is also extensively customizable -- you can select font size, disable user icons, change the notification sound, and more. DestroyTwitter has a convenient auto-complete feature in its search bar, comes in handy if you’re trying to search for a friend in your Twitter list. When you’re writing a tweet, DestroyTwitter allows you to upload a file along with it -- image or video.

DestroyTwitter is a focused Twitter desktop client. Definitely worth a shot.

Download DestroyTwitter

Blu: This is one very good looking Twitter client with some useful features. Blu is a lightweight Twitter client that has a transparent widget-like interface, and comes with an aqua blue theme. A slider in Blu’s settings allows you to set the app’s opacity level and refresh interval -- from as little as 2 mins to 22 mins.

Click on the update icon in Blu’s bottom navigation panel to launch a message window. Blu also allows in-line tweets. Apart from tiny URL integration, Blu also provides conversational view of tweets and retweets -- much like GMail’s conversational email view.

Blu is developed by thirteen23 and requires .NET 3.5 SP1 to run.

Download Blu

Spaz: An Adobe AIR based Twitter client, Spaz is as light and compact as Blu, DestroyTwitter or Twhirl and similar in appearance in some ways. However, it distinguishes itself from other Twitter desktop clients by allowing multiple themes -- so you can dress it in accordance with your desktop’s theme.

The rest is pretty much the same, compared to other Twitter clients, in terms of features that Spaz offers. Spaz is an open source software.

Download Spaz

Yoono: Yoono brings together social network and chat programs under one roof, thereby simplifying your online social life -- as it rightfully claims and does. And like Seesmic and TweetDeck, Yoono does its bit to take control of your Twitter feeds.

Yoono has two sides to its client interface: browser and columns -- you can toggle between the two by clicking on buttons at the top. If you log into your Twitter account, you will see a default Web browser view of your Twitter page, but you can click on the columns pane on top to see your default feeds. Alternately, you can assign dedicated columns to pull Twitter information from your friend’s feed, mentions, direct messages, etc., on Yoono if you want. Not only do you get real-time updates from Twitter, you can also view profiles, send messages, retweet updates, and more using Yoono.

Yoono’s probably the only Twitter desktop client that offers both original Web view of one’s Twitter feed as well as dedicated column view through one single application.

Download Yoono

Spash screen image courtesy of Amrita C. Roy