Twitter. Whether you love it or hate it, hundreds of thousands of users each and every day are consistently answering the question, “What are you doing?”. Over 2007, many developers have used the Twitter API to expand the functionality of the platform. One of the more popular uses of the Twitter API, is to create a desktop Twitter client that will update you whenever one of the people you follow posts an update. For Mac OS X, there are currently two very popular Twitter clients - Twitterrific and Snitter.

Twitterrific, now on version 3, is a very mature Twitter client created by the Icon Factory. It is a native Mac OS X application, and there is currently no Windows version. Snitter, on the other hand is a new competitor in the Twitter client space. It runs on both Mac OS X and Windows through the Adobe AIR runtime environment. Unfortunately, this means that it is not a native application for either operating system. It is also very important to note that Twitterrific’s aim is to bring your tweets to the desktop, while Snitter attempts to be a desktop portal to Twitter. So without further ado, let the ultimate twitter client smackdown begin.

Interface

Twitterrific and Snitter both approach a Twitter interface in many different ways. Twitterrific uses an all-black, non-customizable theme. The theme is very Mac-like, and resembles Mac HUDs (or heads-up-displays) that are used in recent Mac applications. The interface is simple, with a single window for tweets, and a bar along the bottom that allows you to update your twitter status. There are three little buttons in the lower left-hand corner of the window, which will go do your twitter home page, open the twitterrific preferences, and refresh your twitter feed respectively.

Snitter takes a much different approach. Instead of blending into the Mac experience, it immediately tries to stand out, with a neon green interface that resembles the OPLC computer. It does not show the polish of Twitterrific in any way. To it’s credit, Snitter does allow you to change interface themes, with one “Leopard” theme that helps to make the window look more Mac-like. However, due to it’s origins as an AIR app, it does not function as well as a native Mac app. It does not behave like most Mac apps, and makes the whole experience feel quite clumsy. The actual arrangement of the interface is quite bulky as well, with a huge update field located at the top of the window. When the window is sized comfortably, it is much bigger than Twitterrific and takes up a lot of space on a small laptop screen.

Twitterrifc has a much more polished and mature interface than Snitter. While not as customizable, it is much more streamlined, and Mac-like than Snitter, which still feels like a second-class Mac application.

Performance

Both Twitterrific and Snitter are designed to run in the background, making it important that they use very minimal system resources. Twitterrific, while using 0% of my CPU when idle, locks up when updating from Twitter, and peaks at 66% CPU usage. This is most likely a bug in the current version, however annoying nonetheless.

Snitter, on the other hand, is a complete RAM hog because of Adobe AIR. After a few minutes, Snitter will be using up anywhere from 100MB - 200MB of my system memory - not exactly what I want a background application to be using. Snitter also consistently uses about 3% of my CPU, even when idle. However, while using more resources, Snitter has a much faster, more fluid interface, with tweets scrolling down with a cool effect when they arrive.

Snitter and Twitterrific both lack in performance area, and can use much improvement in future updates. Snitter has some disadvantages, as it is an AIR application, and requires an additional runtime environment to be running in the background.

Features

Twitterrific’s aim is to bring your Twitter feed to your desktop. Version 3 introduced replies and direct messages directly into your main twitter feed. Replies show up in red, while direct messages show up in blue. Twitterrific also has the option to play multiple “tweet” sounds when new tweets come in. There is also the option to update your iChat, Adium, or Skype status through Applescript whenever you tweet.

Snitter, however, tries to bring the whole twitter experience to your desktop. You can see replies, direct messages, your tweet archive, the public timeline, and all your favourites. You can view all of the followers you have, as well as all of your friends. The coolest feature of Snitter is undoubtedly the ability to view full twitter profiles from the Snitter window. You can search users, and find their accounts, along with their description, and recent tweets.

Snitter beats Twitterrific hands down with features. With Snitter, I almost never have to go to Twitter.com, except to check up on my current tweet count.

Experience

Finally, the category that I think matters the most. Aside from all the features and the use of system resources, which app functions better in real-world use. I find that 99% of the time, I’m not checking my archives or followers or friends. Most of the time, I just want a simple interface in which I can see my replies, my direct messages, and tweets from my friends.

While Snitter has all of these features, they are all located in different menus and different feeds. I don’t want that when I’m working. I don’t want to switch over to another menu just to see my replies - I want them all together. That is what Twitterrific provides. One feed. One interface. All my tweets, replies (both from my friends and my followers), and my direct messages show up in one window, They are easily sorted by different colours, for me to quickly and visually sort through them.

Conclusion

Both of these twitter clients offer many different pros and cons, however, Twitterrific is the simplest, most streamlined, and most beautiful desktop client for any Mac user. It provides you with all the essential features of twitter in a single feed on your desktop, and beats Snitter in many different areas such as the user experience and seamless interface. Hopefully, twitter desktop clients will continue to evolve and mature over time, until they strike the perfect balance between performance, simplicity, and features.