14 DAY TRIAL // Android mobile phone users should soon be able to access the microblogging website Twitter via an official application, the company announced. Evan Williams, co-founder of the microblogging site, recently unveiled plans to offer the application for users of handsets powered by Google's Android operating system, stating that the solution should resolve issues customers currently have when it comes to finding the right software to do the job.
“We need to address these markets in a better way,” Williams told the audience at Chirp, Twitter's annual developer conference. “We found we were under-serving users. We realized we had to have a core experience on these major platforms just like we do on the web, otherwise we are failing users,” he continued.
For the time being, there are no details available on whether the upcoming application will be developed by Twitter itself, nor on the possibility that the company will acquire the technology from another company. However, there are chances that the microblogging site would choose the latter solution, following the recent purchase of Tweetie for the Apple iPhone. However, it should also be mentioned that the company collaborated with Research in Motion for the development of an app for the BlackBerry OS.
Twitter has over 105 million registered users at the moment and aims at increasing the user base even more. “The best thing we can do for you guys is to grow the user base to hundreds of millions of new users,” Williams said, trying to address developers' fears regarding Twitter's native app for Android.
According to Telegraph.co.uk, Twitter is also considering the launch of its own link shortener, which would compete against solutions offered by Bit.ly and TinyURL. Currently existing Twitter clients come with a built-in link shortener, and the company's co-founder sees this as a great feature. “Everyone else has solved that problem. We are probably not going to give people a choice. If they want to use a different shortener, they can use a different app,” he concluded.