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Will Google Help Twitter Build An Android App?

Will Google Help Twitter Build An Android App?

Yesterday at the Chirp conference (where Twitter revealed they had over 100 million users), founder Evan Williams revealed that Twitter will launch an Android twitter app to the masses.

The Android app will help compliment their recent purchase of Tweetie as well as RIM’s official Blackberry twitter app (which Twitter is claiming isn’t official, but whatever).

While some are speculating that Twitter will partner with a phone manufacturer or simply buy an Android Twitter app (like Touiteur, TweetCaster or Seesmic), Twitter may once again disrupt the developer community and have Google build them an Android app instead.

Unlike the iPhone and Blackberry, the Android OS is much more fractured than its rivals, as there are currently 3 versions of Android in the wild upon almost 3 dozen different phones from over a dozen manufacturers.

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Partnering with Google to create an official Android app could be the easiest path to insuring compatibility across all Android devices, as well as avoid the massive headaches when it comes to support.

Regardless of the path Twitter chooses, it will be interesting to see how developers react to Twitter launching an official app, and whether it will force developers to innovate beyond or die (or rather their Android apps that is).

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  • Innovation in the Android market can’t be a bad thing. I tried a handful of third party clients before finding one that worked (Swift), so forcing developers to up their game will be great.

    Saying that, Android’s “Peep” app is awful. Hopefully the next default client will be better.

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