ReTweetie – Add Native ReTweeting to Tweetie for Mac (Plus 10 Features that Tweetie for Mac is in dire need of)

Every single avid Twitter user that owns a Mac and/or has read technology blogs knows that Tweetie for Mac is definitely a favorite when it comes to desktop Twitter clients. Its beautiful, simple, and minimalist UI is what makes it the most attractive. You don’t feel like you have to be an expert to be able to tweet like in many Twitter apps. But as new features come and go, and ever since Loren Britcher (creator of Tweetie and CEO of Atebits) joined the Twitter team, poor Tweetie for Mac has been left behind. It lacks key features, but possibly the one that users complain about the most is native ReTweeting. If you’ve been around long enough, you’d know that ReTweeting is a feature invented solely by Twitter users, and later on added officially. Here’s the catch, though- The ‘old’ ReTweet format is actually tweeting “RT @user: Tweet” or “Tweet (via @user)”, while the ‘new’ (native) format is simply clicking a button and users will see the original tweet.

Still confused? Here are examples of both features, illustrated for you.

Native (‘New’) ReTweet-

Classic (‘Old) ReTweet-

As you can see, the ‘old’ ReTweet is more like reposting a tweet, while the native ReTweet is spreading the original tweet around.

But now it’s possible to do a native ReTweet using Tweetie for Mac thanks to the awesome Nick Paulson, developer of ReTweetie!

ReTweetie is a SIMBL plugin that allows you to do just that- ReTweet the new way.

It’s very easy to install this wonderful plugin, just follow these simple steps-

1. Download and install SIMBL.

2. Place ReTweetie bundle in:

/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins

3. Relaunch Tweetie for Mac.

Now that this long guide on the easiest thing in the world is over with, I thought it would be nice to include 10 features that Tweetie for Mac lacks and would make it the best client out there once again.

1. Filtering – Spam is a huge part of Twitter, but bots aren’t the only spammers on it. Sometimes you follow people who get overexcited on a certain topic, and it gets annoying. It sucks that you can’t (officially- see this and this) filter Tweets.

2. Trending Topics – It is not possible to view trends on Tweetie for Mac. True, there is a Search feature, but you still have to figure out the Trending Topics elsewhere.

3. Delete a Tweet – This, along with ReTweeting, is probably the feature that is needed the most on a Twitter client. What if you accidentally Tweet a DM? Or accidentally Tweet something that you weren’t supposed to Tweet just yet? Accidents do happen, believe me, and you’re out of luck if they happen to you while using this app. The time it takes for you to log into Twitter on your browser and delete the Tweet is just about enough for everyone to read it.

4. Favorite a Tweet – With that said, I’d really like the little star symbol. Twhirl gives you a little star up in the right hand corner of every Tweet. Again, simple. In Tweetie for Mac you right-click (a feature I only discovered moments ago).

5. Growl Support – Growl is used in most apps that need notifications for Macs. It’s simple and effective. Tweetie for Mac’s only notification method is a mini glowing icon on the status bar, but it doesn’t really let you know if it’s notifying you on a new Tweet, mention, or DM.

6. ReTweets – This, as you can see, has kind of been fixed, but it would be nice to have an official fix.

7. Features over Tweet – Tweetie for Mac is all about keyboard shortcuts, really. If you don’t know what keyboard shortcuts, well sucks for you, buddy, since you will have to actually right click on a Tweet to reply/ReTweet/Quote/Open in Browser/Favorite/DM the author. In most Twitter apps, all you have to do is hover over the Tweet, and all these options will appear in icons instead of text. This isn’t necessary for me, but I know a lot of people it would really help.

8. Refresh – Unless you’re a celebrity (even so), you probably refresh like a maniac after you’ve posted a Tweet of if you’re simply lurking. But there shouldn’t be a need for you to refresh for new Tweets, for the app should automatically refresh itself every few minutes, depending on the user’s choice. Wrong. Tweetie for Mac refreshes itself to its own wishes, ie every two weeks or so.

9. Blocking users – You can’t actually block users using Tweetie. Nope, you can’t. Yeah, this is pretty self-explanatory.

10. In-app following/followers list – If you want to view someone’s followers or who they’re following, the link provided will take you to the web-based Twitter. This is a huge inconvenience if you don’t want to open your browser for whatever reason.

It’s a pity that some features like ReTweeting and Filtering (even if you can’t filter on web-based Twitter, either) have to be unofficially gotten to work on Tweetie.

Where’s Tweetie 2 for Mac?!

Tweetie for Mac users- What feature would you like to see on future Tweetie updates?