Almost immediately after I got my first Android-powered phone (a T-Mobile G1) I went looking for a Twitter app. There weren’t many back in the day, and not an official one at all.

Since then, times have changed — a lot! Social networking has exploded in popularity, several apps have sprung up to fill the gap left vacant by the lack of an official Twitter app, and Twitter  finally released their own app. Was it too little, too late?

TWYDROYD hard to change their name, because you might confuse it with R2-D2 or C3PO

Back then if you wanted to use Twitter you could either use their mobile website, Tweet via text, or find a 3rd-party app. The app of choice back then was TWIDROYD (though it was spelled differently). It was a fairly basic Twitter app, but really, do you need more than “basic” when it comes to Twitter?

Since Twitter claimed Touiteur was simply a misspelling of their name, it was changed to Plume.

I jumped on another app, Touiteur. They had to change their name to Plume, apparently Twitter thought Touiteur was simply a “misspelling” Twitter — which could be confusing (it wasn’t confusing). It was my everyday social networking app for years.

These two weren’t alone, over time they had plenty of competition:

To top it all off, even device manufacturers are now pre-loading devices with their own “social hub” apps for Twitter and other networks.

Do you use the official Twitter app?

Not to be left out of the app craze, Twitter has (finally!) released their own “official” app. It’s gone through many (many!) permutations, and currently has a pretty solid version out. Even with all their hard work, I have to wonder, do you use one of these 3rd-party Twitter apps, or are you an “official app” kind of guy or gal?

Which app is your go-to Twitter app? Why did you pick it? Why do you stick with it instead of jumping over to Twitter proper? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below!