Twitterrific Update Brings Early iOS 9 Features

San Francisco, Safari View Controller, and Safari Reader in Twitterrific 5.13.

The latest version of Twitterrific, released today on the App Store, brings a number of nice improvements such as hashtag autocompletion, better support for Handoff, and some welcome fixes for quoted tweets and the media viewer. What’s even nicer is that, if you’re running the iOS 9 beta, Twitterrific for iOS 8 already supports Safari View Controller and the San Francisco font thanks to some clever coding by The Iconfactory.

Safari View Controller is Apple’s new integrated web view for iOS 9 that I explored in depth after this year’s WWDC. I’ll have plenty more to say about Safari View Controller once iOS 9 ships later this year, but I feel comfortable saying that it provides a superior web view experience that I’d like to see in most apps for iOS 9. Safari View Controller shares auto-fill data and cookies with Safari, it supports the share sheet and Safari Reader out of the box, and it automatically loads the same Content Blockers you install in Safari. Safari View Controller sacrifices some freedom for third-party developers, but the trade-off is worth it when you can get a richer in-app web experience with the same features and polish of Safari.

Twitterrific is a good example of the benefits brought by Safari View Controller: opening links from the timeline brings up a web view that opens quickly, is consistent with Safari, and that supports Content Blockers and respects your privacy. If a webpage is too cluttered, you can use Safari Reader inside Twitterrific, and if you happen to come across a webpage that requires a login you can use the same credentials stored in Safari’s keychain. Safari View Controller brings the power and consistency of Safari to any app, and it works well in Twitterrific.

Obviously, because developers can’t officially support iOS 9 yet (example) and iOS 9 isn’t finished, this is a workaround and you should expect these early features to change by the final release of iOS 9. Twitterrific also supports San Francisco for users on iOS 9, but Apple is still tweaking the new system font.

Twitterrific continues to innovate in the third-party Twitter client scene, and it’s no surprise to see they’re already implementing iOS 9 features that will officially launch this Fall. You can get the latest Twitterrific here.