Twitter for iOS, Android updated with new Search button and performance improvements

Twitter recently rolled an update for its embedded tweets feature on the Web that makes it easier and faster to embed tweets. Now, the microblogging site has updated its iOS (version 5.3) and Android (version 3.7.0) clients with additional search functionality and other performance improvements that claim an overall faster user experience.

For iPhone, the update has now added a separate Search button on the top right corner that now promises to return a more relevant results for people, Tweets and photos. This was already available for Android and the iPad apps. Users can see their five most recent searches and tap them to redo the search or can clear their recent search history.

A noteworthy change in the app is that it's snappier than before while loading pictures and tweets, not to forget the app itself, especially for older iOS devices. Also, the Connect section now shows all Interactions like new followers, retweets et al and not just Mentions. However, users can change this under Settings in case they'd like to "view Mentions only".

The Discover tab now shows a single stream of Tweets, Activity, Trends and suggestions of accounts to follow for both platforms. Users can directly jump to Activity or Trends from the top of the Discover tab. Now when users click a URL in a Tweet, it takes them directly to that website from any timeline. Earlier, tapping a tweet would first expand it making users click on it a second time.

The iOS app also has improved right-to-left language support for Arabic and Hebrew with Farsi as an additional language for Android 4.0 and higher. Standard bug fixes and improvements are also applicable.

Here's the full change log for Twitter for iOS v5.3:

• Discover delivers a single stream of Tweets, Trends, Activity and accounts to follow. Pull to refresh or keep scrolling to see more content
• Search now shows the most relevant mix of people, Tweets and photos
• It's also easier to use search with one button at the top of the app
• You can see your five most recent searches and tap them to redo the search, or you can clear your recent search history
• Links instantly open web pages when you tap URLs in your stream
• Performance improvements make launch times faster, especially for older iOS devices
• Connect shows interactions like new followers, retweets and mentions by default. You can switch to "view mentions only" in settings
• Improved right-to-left language support for Arabic and Hebrew
• Bug fixes and other improvements

Additionally, folks over at Tapbots have released an update to Tweetbot, a popular Twitter client for iOS. The update brings along in-line image preview support for Flickr and the recently acquired Vine along with support for Chrome and 1Password.

With this update, users can now load Vine videos right within the app without having to open a separate page to load the video.  The inline Vine video feature is a result of some technical solutions that actually seems to work in a rather clean manner.Further the app now also has native support for output through AirPlay and sports a full-screen view for videos.

Flickr has got some much needed attention as well. Tweetbot now displays images right inside the app's native interface, with the option to save or copy the photo, view its original website, or tweet out a link to it. This comes only a couple of months after Flickr underwent a major overhaul and rolled out a brand new iOS app.

Tweetbot now supports Google Chrome's iOS browser, which means that users can choose to open an external link from within the app in Safari, Chrome or 1Password. The update has also added better support to mute tweets with URLs.

Twitter (iOS, Free)
Twitter (Google Play, Free)
Tweetbot (iOS, Rs. 170)