Falcon Pro (Android)

Falcon Pro may be one of the best Twitter clients on Google Play, but it's still missing a few key features that could be deal-breakers for some.

Falcon Pro for Android may be one of the newer Twitter clients on the block, but with the way things are going, it might end up ruling them all. Sporting some of the slickest design I've seen in the category, Falcon is quickly becoming a fan favorite for a fast-growing contingent of social-focused Android users.

Falcon's interface is about as attractive as they come, with its minimalist typeface and light-on-dark color scheme. But what's most impressive is this app's exceptionally smooth controls. Swiping up and down through your Twitter timeline is a pleasure free of any jerky refreshes, while swiping laterally between control panels is as smooth as butter as well.

Swipe left or right on the Timeline to reveal the rest of Falcon Pro's menus and Twitter functions.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jaymar Cabebe/CNET)

All of Falcon's functionality is neatly organized into three panels. The Center panel, your Timeline, is where most of the action takes place. It displays all of your tweets with sufficiently large avatars, timestamps, and clearly identifiable usernames. It's noticeably clear of any clutter from buttons. If you want to reply, retweet, or favorite a tweet, simply long-press to reveal a slim toolbar with options. Otherwise, you can tap any individual tweet to expand it to full screen and show a preview of embedded links or images in the app's internal browser. This is a nice touch, as it lets you view rich media without having to leave Falcon. As for syncing, you can set your timeline to refresh as often as every two minutes. Unfortunately, though, there is no Push notification option as of yet. Meanwhile, the running counter at the top of the Timeline updates you with notifications for new tweets, mentions, and direct messages.

The developers behind the app also recently integrated the YouTube API, which lets users view YouTube videos right within Falcon's interface. Whether a tweet contains a direct YouTube video link or a link to an external site with an embedded YouTube video, Falcon lets you play the content just as you would in your normal browser.

Tap a tweet with an embedded YouTube link to watch a video without leaving Falcon's interface

(Credit: Screenshot by Jaymar Cabebe/CNET)

But of course, Falcon's interface is made up of more than just the Timeline. Swipe right from the Timeline to see a panel with all of your basic Twitter controls, which let you jump to your profile, following and followers lists, Search, and Settings. There are also links to Mentions, DMs, Retweets, and Favorites. Swipe left from the Timeline to see a panel of shortcuts to your lists, saved searches, world trends, and local trends.

On the top-right of Falcon's interface is the Compose button, which brings up a clean and simple window for tapping out your own tweets. The interface makes it easy to attach existing photos or new ones, as well as add location tags to your tweets. One thing that's missing, however, is an autocomplete function. To me, this is a significant omission. When tweeting from a mobile device, I typically rely heavily on the autocomplete function for mentioning friends, as it not only makes tweeting faster, but it also saves me from having to memorize all of my friends' Twitter handles. Hopefully the feature makes it into future updates.

One great thing about the Compose function is that it can save a draft of a tweet. So, if you get interrupted while typing out your message, the next time you open up the Compose box, your work will still be there. Also, it's worth noting that Falcon uses native Twitter retweets unless you modify the contents of the tweet.

Because of its impressively smooth performance and clean interface, Falcon is one of the best Twitter clients available on Android. It makes it easy to scroll through your Timeline, search for keywords, look up friends, and of course, fire off tweets of your own. That said, it is still missing some key features. The lack of autocomplete is a big deal. Also, it's disappointing that the app doesn't support multiple accounts.