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.

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Just prior to Hahlo4 launching Twitter announced that they would be adding a new ReTweet API, as well as the ability to geo tag tweets. And this week they’ve announced that they’ll be adding “lists”, a concept which other twitter apps have implemented, usually calling the feature ‘groups’. I had started adding something similar to Hahlo4 early on as an alternative to saved searches (which weren’t available via the API at the time).

You can read more about the coming ‘Lists’ feature over at the twitter blog. This is how they explained the concept:
The idea is to allow people to curate lists of Twitter accounts. For example, you could create a list of the funniest Twitter accounts of all time, athletes, local businesses tools like those available at https://www.thepaystubs.com/1099-r-form-generator, friends, or any compilation that makes sense.
So I guess you’re all wondering when do we get to play with these things using Hahlo4? Well.

Lists

As yet no details about how the Lists API will work have been released, so its hard to say exactly wheat I will/won’t be able to incorporate. However, if the recent enhancements to the Twitter API are anything to go by, theres a pretty good chance I should be able to provide the same functionality that they add to Twitter.com.

Personally I’m expecting that it will probably function in a similar way to the saved searches API. Until we’ve got official word as to how the Lists API will work we won’t know for sure, but I’m looking forward to it.

ReTweets

I’m not the biggest fan of retweets in general, always been a believer that if I was interested in what person X was saying then I would follow them myself. After all Twitter’s tag line is/was “what are you doing?” not “what is someone else doing?”. However some people just love them, and as a result it was probably the most requested ‘new’ feature that people wanted in Hahlo4.

Seems that witter themselves have realised that a lot of people love retweeting and they’re adding it to twitter.com and to the API. Details about the API and how it works have been released (and changed several times) but as yet they aren’t active. But once they are I’ll start adding them into Hahlo4.

GeoLocation

Right now Twitter search uses the location from your twitter profile as the location for your tweets, but Twitter is adding the ability to geo tag you’re tweets with your actual location. So, for example, you’ve got your location set as “Chicago, Illinois” but you’re actually tweeting from somewhere in the middle of Texas, well you’ll be able to tag that location onto you’re tweets.

It sounds like this will be an option that is off by default (I imagine there will be quite a lot of people who don’t want to share their specific location for all their tweets). Again, this addition to the API isn’t live yet but once it is I’ll start playing around with it.

What I need/want from you guys

If you’ve got any thoughts, preferences, suggestions as to how you might like to see these new features work within Hahlo4 then please lave a comment on this post.

More info on these new APIs can be found here:

• Twitter blog – Soon to launch: Lists
• Twitter Dev group – Geolocation API update
• Twitter Dev group – Updates to the retweet API payload

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