Chirp for Twitter

The best parts of Twitter, on your wrist

Free From Will Bishop Made For watchOS, iPhone Needs iOS 11.0 or later

Twitter abandoned Apple Watch in late 2017, which didn’t cause much uproar seeing how the native watchOS app was, to put it charitably, less than ideal. But the departure left a noticeable void in the hearts, minds, and displays of Watch owners who don’t use third-party apps like Tweetbot or Twitterrific.

Enter Chirp, the first Twitter client designed specifically for watchOS. Once installed, fans of the diminutive social network can browse their timeline or profile, see the top five currently trending hashtags, or view mentions and likes in a way that not only feels native to the platform, but is way, way better than the official app could have hoped to be. (If you love Twitter as much as Apple Watch, this is a match made in heaven.)

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg: Cough up for the Pro version, and you’ll be able to post new tweets, reply to tweets from others, view or send direct messages, search for specific users or hashtags, and view more than five trends. Best of all, the in-app Pro upgrade (really the only function of the iPhone app) is “pay what you want” — $1.99, $2.99, or $4.99, which helps fund continued development.

Remarkably, Chirp even supports playback of videos posted to Twitter accounts, although the app spends a minute or so spinning with a loading message before download and playback begins. The app also works great with LTE–equipped Series 3 models when the connected iPhone isn’t available. Best of all, the developer of Chirp is enthusiastic and hands–on, so users should expect the app to only be iterated upon and improve over time.

the bottom line. This is very much the Twitter watchOS client you’ve been waiting for, and even better with the paid Pro upgrade.