As an avid Twitter user (just celebrated my 6-year anniversary on the service), I am pretty excited about today’s news: Twitter for Windows 8 is now available for download in the Windows Store.
The design of the Twitter app for Windows 8 should look familiar: it utilizes the same design principles seen on Twitter.com and other Twitter mobile apps featuring the Home, Connect, Discover, and Me tabs. And the updated Twitter app for Windows Phonealso uses the same design principles.
However, this new Twitter app takes advantage of Windows 8 in a variety of ways.
First off – it has a Live Tile that allows you to quickly see who has replied to you on Twitter right from your Start screen and you’ll get notifications too for replies and direct messages.
You can use the Share charm to quickly share from another app to Twitter. For example – last night I stumbled upon a new Blu-ray movie I wanted to pre-order from Amazon and right from the Amazon app I was able to swipe from the right edge choose the Share charm to share it to my followers on Twitter! Quickly share websites from Internet Explorer 10 to Twitter as well via the Share charm.
Similar to using the Share charm, you can use the Search charm to find Twitter accounts to follow or Tweets with a certain hashtag (like #Windows8).
Photos are large and center with an all-new landscape view giving you a larger version of a photo included in a Tweet. You can also swipe horizontally to view multiple photos in the Discover tab or a user’s profile and tap a photo to view it in full screen.
But one of my favorite features is the ability to snap the Twitter app to either the left or right side of my screen while using another app so I can always keep track of all the Tweets coming through from my followers.
To see Twitter for Windows 8in action – check out the following video from Twitter:
For more on Twitter for Windows 8, head on over to the Twitter blog and read their blog post from Mike Kruzeniski (@mkruz) who is Twitter’s Design Lead for the app.