Unless you’ve been living under a rock you should now be aware that Twitter has introduced lists, and most people seem to have access to them now. But, I hear you ask, when are they going to be available in Hahlo. Well, in 4.1 they will be, but there are a few other things that need to happen before then.
The plan (at the moment)
Right now the plan is for the 4.1 update to include support for lists, the new retweet api and a few other things (mainly thing I didn’t get a chance to add/complete for 4.0). However, the list api (or at least some of it) seems to be functional, but there is no documentation as yet so I haven’t started playing with it, the retweet api is documented but not active. Is it just me or do those situations seem a little backward?
So I can’t really play with the APIs to much so I’ve been mocking up how I think/want the lists pages to work when I get to them (keep reading for a few quick mockups I whipped up yesterday). In the process I’m also think about making a few changes to other sections of Hahlo, which I’ll go into a little more detail about later.
So, Lists.
Until I know exactly what info I can get out of the API all and any mockups are simply that, just mockups. So feel free to provide feedback if you’ve got any ideas on how you’d like to see lists work within Hahlo, I open to good suggestions.
These mockups show how a list might look when viewed within Hahlo, nothing overly exciting since a list is basically just a custom timeline.
ReTweets
I will be replacing the current RT-prefixed retweet method when I switch to the ReTweet API when it becomes available. I see no point in maintaining two different methods for doing the same thing. Once I’m happy with my lists mockups I’ll probably start thinking about how retweets are going to integrate, so keep an eye out on here for some mockups.
Other changes
So far I’ve got two main changes that I’m seriously considering. Changes to the user profiles/archives and changes to the slide-in menu you get when you tap on a tweet.
First, the user profiles. At the moment each user basically has two pages, an archive (user timeline) and a profile. This was originally done because the full profile data wasn’t available in the user timeline api, but now it is, so I’m probably going to merge the archive and profile into one page (much like it already is on twitter.com anyway). Profile info will be hidden by default, and can be viewed by tapping the ‘view profile’ link in the top right. The following mockups show what I’m thinking. I’ll also be using this method of showing extra info on the list timelines as well.
Secondly, the tweet ‘actions’ menus. These are the little slide in menus that you see when you tap of a tweet or avatar in your timeline. My current thinking is that I’ll merge the two into one menu that appears below a tweet on-tap, instead of one on the left and one on the right, this will allow for bigger, easier to tap buttons, and more buttons (without breaking the layout) should the need arise. When I’ve got a mockup I’m reasonably happy with I’ll post it up here for feedback.
When?
Well, I need the APIs and I need time. Until I’ve at least got the APIs you won’t be getting an ETA. So hold tight, just remember that with Hahlo you’ll all get the update automatically as soon as its ready, nothing extra to download, nothing extra to pay.
