It’s going to be mighty difficult to write a review for Icebird. This Twitter app looks great, runs powerfully smooth, and is fully featured. BUT!, on all bases, it just doesn’t compare to Twitter’s newly crowned official application. I started using Icebird for about a week or two before the Tweetie 2 flip and I was extremely excited to make a recommendation. More on that in a second.

I love the “insert user for mention” feature.

Icebird at first glance appears to be a hybrid of Tweetie 1 and Tweetie 2, style from the former, function from the latter. I loved the matte, smooth chat bubbles of the original Tweetie application. It’s so similar, I can’t help but wonder why no one has complained: even clicking on an individual tweet has a nearly identical interface. Then again, there are subtle differences. Instead of swiping a tweet to bring up the reply/retweet/favorite menu, it’s more like copy and paste. Pressing and holding to bring up a menu, which I personally like more. I also love the rounded, webOS-esque edges, buttery transitions and animations. My favorite feature is while composing: tap the contacts button to automatically drop a user’s Twitter handle into the tweet. No need to copy and paste it nor dig for the user to hit reply. Perfect for those long handles and those that are hard to remember.

Twitter for iPhone vs Icebird. Besides color, it’s hard to tell the difference.

There are somethings missing or implemented in a messy fashion. Hitting reply under certain conditions will put your Twitter handle in the reply. My guess is that this is supposed to be like a “reply all” feature that Tweetie 2 Twitter for iPhone has, but done wrong. Also, there’s no good way to go to your profile nor go to a specific user. The application also loads tweets (particularly in search) very slowly. Copying tweets is also a little junky. It tries to select everything, including the application used to post and timestamp. Limited media support. As far as I could tell, I couldn’t upload photos to Twitpic, just yfrog. That made me mad. Oh right, no landscape mode too.

Copying a tweet can be rough, buggy.

To put it in numbers, the application has about 90% of the features of Twitter for iPhone and looks 10% better. To me, paying for for that isn’t worth it. This pains me so much. Icebird is a fantastic Twitter app if Twitter for iPhone still cost money. My hope is that the Icebird developers will create an even better looking, better running Twitter application to justify a purchase. What choice to developers have? Tweetie 2 was already hailed as the best application for the iPhone, but many hadn’t converted due to price. Now that Twitter for iPhone is free, other developers must make some really incredible apps to compete.

Read up more on the Icebird App here

Disclaimer: Icebird was reviewed with version 1.0.2 and was purchased using a promo code. You can pick up Icebird for $3.99 via Apple’s Appstore here.