Twitscoop, a real-time visualization tool and web-based Twitter client, that lets you see hot trends and buzz on Twitter, has launched an iPhone app. Twitscoop’s site, which underwent a makeover in May, gives you an in-depth look at what’s hot on Twitter via a real-time tag cloud and an in-depth trending topics feature that also lets you search for trends on Twitter and Tweet directly from its platform.
Twitscoop’s iPhone app, which costs $0.99 on iTunes’ App Store, has much of the same functionality as the site. You can see the real-time buzz on Twitter via a tag cloud, where words grow, shrink, and disappear automatically depending on their usage on Twitter. You just watch it and it changes like an animation. The app’s trend algorithm also detects and pulls out buzzing words, breaking news and trending rich content (i.e. links, pictures, and videos). You can click on these topics and popular words to access the most recent Tweets about the subject.
One of the key features lacking in Twitscoop’s iPhone app, however, is the ability to tweet from the app itself. The site recently added this capability, but it’s unclear if this feature will be included in the iPhone app in the future as an update.
There are other iPhone apps out there that offer a glimpse into what’s trending on Twitter, including iTrends, ReTweet and Summizer. And many of the Twitter client apps that let you Tweet from your iPhone, such as Tweetie, Twitteriffic, and Twittelator, also include a trending topics feature. Clearly the arena is filled with competitors, so it may be tough for Twitscoop’s app to gain serious traction, especially since the $0.99 app is competing with free apps which are more fully-functional.