Twitter for iOS, Android brings improved search, iOS app drops third-party video services

Twitter just updated its iOS and Android clients with a host of new changes, especially for the iOS version. The apps on both platforms now get improved search results with respect to the Top Tweet feature and inclusion of topics and user suggestions based on individual queries.

The update mentions that as you search, you'll be able to view these suggestions in real-time and also see them when adding a hashtag or a username while composing new tweets.

Last month we reported that Twitter has(we can remove has) finally started including older tweets in search results, though it wasn't clear that tweets going how far back to the past are included in the search results. With this update, you'll now be able to see Top Tweets  for special events from the past. Twitter quotes an example search for the term "election" saying that it will pull up related search results from several months ago.

Additionally, when you are directed to a web page as you click on it from within a specific tweet, the contextual tweet appears at the bottom of the page upon pulling the tray icon. You, therefore have the option to reply, retweet, favourite and a bunch of other sharing options from the page itself. You can make it go away by either tapping the web page or pulling down the tray.

Speaking of pulling, the Pull-to-refresh feature for both iOS and Android apps now features a smoother animation and loads results faster.

For iOS, a few video upload services have been dropped in this version including Mobypicture, Vodpod and Posterous. This means that the app now has native video upload support only for yFrog and Twitvid, eliminating potential hassles such as taking hits for third-party failures for Twitter. With this move, the app now has greater control over the video and image uploads for greater incoming content.

The iOS app now has native support for traditional Chinese language and iOS 6 users also get the Logout support feature. Furthermore, when iOS users block others from within the app, the Connect Tab no longer reveals their tweets. Additional bug fixes and other improvements apply for both apps.

Earlier last month, Twitter's iOS (v5.3) and Android (3.7.0) apps were updated with additional search functionality and other performance improvements that claimed an overall faster user experience.

More recently, Twitter had discontinued TweetDeck apps for iPhone, Android and Adobe AIR (a desktop version). The company posted about the development on the TweetDeck blog announcing that the apps will be removed from their respective app stores in early May following which they will stop functioning. In addition to that, Twitter is also removing support for Facebook integration from TweetDeck.

Twitter (iOS, Free)
Twitter (Google Play, Free)