Google’s promise of bringing morse code to our smartphones may have just been a cleverly crafted joke, but if you’re just tickled by the concept’s delightful sense of anachronism, a new iOS app called TeleTweet should definitely be on your radar.
Released by the team from Shacked Software this past Friday, TeleTweet takes that same concept and runs in a completely different direction. Instead of wrapping morse code in a sleek, modern, more user-friendly interface as Google’s own mockup did, TeleTweet aims to send users straight into the past.
Maybe I’m in the minority here but I have no earthly idea what sequences of dits and dashes can be converted into meaningful thoughts, so being faced with a handsome (albeit digital) replica of a straight key was a bit off-putting for a few moments.
When I realized that I could drag down a full list of letters and their morse equivalents though, that sense of confusion was quickly replaced with a slightly less puzzled sense of amusement. Meanwhile, turning your iDevice to the left or right replaces the straight key with a TeleTweet ticker that slowly scrolls new tweets across the screen. It looks great, but what makes makes the experience stand out is the constant sound of letters being etched onto thin strips of faux-paper.
Of course, there may come a time when your thumb grows weary of pounding out dits and dashes, which is why TeleTweet also includes the standard QWERTY keyboard for some traditional two-thumb tweeting. Frankly, I don’t know why they bothered to include it — if you’re the kind of person who would buy this app, it’s probably not because you wanted an easy way to tell people what you did or didn’t just finish eating.
TeleTweet isn’t a tool for power users to add to their arsenal of social media penetration tools, nor is it meant for first-time Tweeters to cut their teeth on the platform. There really isn’t a compelling reason to use it other than the fact that it’s all a bit of silly, gorgeous, anachronistic fun, but hey — who couldn’t use a little more of that?