Most people who own a smartphone, no matter what operating system it runs on, will probably want to use the 2 most popular social networks online: Facebook and Twitter. There are already a lot of client apps created for these networks for the Android operating system. In fact, there are so many, it’s confusing.
So, to make things easier for you, here’s a list of the best Twitter and Facebook client apps, as voted by users. They’re also the ones that are regularly updated and maintained, so you don’t run into the risk of having the application suddenly stop working.
Twidroid.
The leading Twitter client for Android. It has most of the features you need and is fast and stable. You can view and publish tweets, videos and images, shorten URL’s, share tweets using SMS or Email, reply (including reply-to-all for the paid version), and do a lot of other things. The free version has no support for multiple backgrounds, no reply-to-all and no desktop widgets, but should be enough for most users. If you need those features, you can get the paid version for $5. Of course it comes with lifetime support and a few additional phone-dependant features like shake for refresh, offline tweets scheduler and multiple accounts.
TweetsRide.
Formerly named TwitterRide, this is a simple, fast and light Twitter client application for Android. It has all the basic features one might need and nothing else. This makes it perfect for people who just want to read and publish tweets and images/photos. The latest update also includes support for video uploads through TwitVid, which is great, but can use up all your allocated bandwidth pretty fast.
Facebook for Android.
Many people thought this was an official Facebook app when it launched, but that turned out to be false. Still, Facebook seems to officially endorse it (they list it on their Facebook mobile page), so you can be sure that it works well. It is a good application with all the basic features you might need. It actually comes pre-installed on a lot of phones and you can also install it yourself if you don’t have it.
Bloo.
The name doesn’t imply it, but this app is actually a Facebook client for Android. It provides all of the basic features like status updates, viewing photos, comments, and others. That is probably enough for most users. People have reported a lot of problems with the free version, and even the developer posted a message saying you should get the paid version (which is only $1 and has no problems), but you can still try it before buying.
fooBook.
This is another client app for Facebook. It has the most features of all, but users are reporting that it doesn’t work right, so you need to try it for yourself. The free edition is missing only the comment posting feature and does not have on-demand re-syncing, while the paid version has those features and is only $1.50, so it could be worth it if the free version works on your device.
The above apps are some of the best clients for Facebook and Twitter. I’m sure they’ll be improved with the next updates, so you can safely download them knowing they’ll work. What would be really nice is one single app that would provide all the features of both these networks. Maybe we’ll see one someday, but for now we just have to wait.