Echofon Pro vs. Falcon Pro

If you’re a long reader of my blog you’ll already know that last week I became owner of a brand new iPad mini 2. This led me to the idea to compare apps that aren’t available on Android to apps that aren’t available on iOS (in the tablet sector) to see, which platform offers the better alternative solutions to the same problem. This time: A Twitter Client.

I really don’t like the official Twitter client. I don’t hate it but it just doesn’t suit me well enough. I don’t like the fact that it doesn’t dispaly every media type in-line (i.e. Instagram…) and I don’t like the design of the client on both platforms. These points just scratch the surface of my problems with it but I won’t go into detail in this post. For my Mac the official client is well enough but not for my mobile needs. So here is my comparison for today: Echofon Pro on the iPad vs. Falcon Pro on the Nexus 7.

The Design

Both apps give 100% in looking native on their respective platforms but Falcon Pro goes the extra step of customizing the experience instead of just using the default template like Echofon Pro does. I do appreciate both designs, however, I like Falcon Pro more in terms of aesthetics personally. Additionally I don't think Echofon Pro uses the space it has in the best possible way (a second column for mentions would have been nice). I don't have a sample for Falcon Pro to test that on Android, because the Nexus 7 is smaller than the iPad mini 2.

 

Functionality

Both clients offer nearly identical features. You can of course view your timeline, single tweets and media previews. You can also manage multiple Twitter accounts and use all the Twitter features you know and love - like searching and pinning searches, retweet, favorite, etc. Both clients offer syncing, however these two differ here. While Falcon Pro uses TweetMark to offer synchronization across platforms via your Twitter account, Echofon Pro only allows for iCloud. This is a deal-breaker for me because I use a Nexus 5 as my daily smartphone and cannot sync between Echofon Pro and Falcon Pro. Echofon doesn’t provide info about this - I had to google it.</p>

Media Previews

As I stated earlier both clients offer rich media embeds so you’ll see images and videos embedded directly in your timeline. Unfortunately Echofon Pro does not support website embeds – you need to click/tap the link. In Falcon Pro when you click/tap a tweet with media embedded in it – if it’s not directly parseable by Falcon Pro – it will display an in-app-browser with Mobilizer enabled (if possible) instantly.

Customizability

Echofon Pro offers a bit of customization. You can set the font size, image preview size, accent colors, dark mode and streaming on/off. You can also change the image upload service. That’s it.

Additionally, for single accounts you set which notifications you want to receive. Falcon Pro offers much more:

This is just an overview of all the settings that are available:

• Real-Time streaming (Echofon Pro does this automatically on WiFi but you can at least turn it off) with a variety of parameters like maximum tweets and which networks you want to use, etc.
• Cache sizes and rules
• TweetMarker (!)
• Notifications (Echofon Pro has this, too)
• Overall theme (White, Grey, Black; I’ve applied Grey in the screenshots)
• Accent colors, fonts and media preview settings (except for fonts Echofon Pro only offers preset accent colors and media preview size)
• Mobilizer service settings, Browser preferences
• Swipe gestures

That’s a myriad of customization options available - many of which are unavailable in Echofon Pro.

Conclusion

I know, this does not go into every single detail. I won’t need to do that because I already have decided: Echofon Pro won’t make a good replacement on my iPad. Falcon Pro still does a way better job than Echofon Pro - although not developed anymore because of Twitter’s stupid token limit, which can be circumvented in Falcon Pro.

Do you have any suggestions of Twitter clients that offer TweetMarker and Inline Media Previews packed with a reasonable design on the iPad?