Tweet Balloon Lets You View Timelines As An Overlay On Your Homescreen

Twitter apps in the Google Play Store are plenty, some are truly amazing and others not so much. If you aren’t using the official Twitter app, you have a huge selection of unofficial ones to choose from. Tweet Balloon is a Twitter app available in the Google Play Store. Like any Twitter app, it lets you read your tweets, view your mentions, direct messages, pretty much standard stuff. What sets it apart is the little balloon widget that comes with it. The balloon widget works a lot like Facebook chat heads and that’s exactly what the balloon resembles (except that it’s a balloon). This balloon is why you would want the app; it snaps to the edge of your screen and when you tap it, it brings up your timeline as an overlay on your phone’s home screen. You can snap the balloon back to a side of your screen to dismiss it...

Install the app and connect your Twitter account. It’s really simple interface wise; all you do is swipe to the next tab to view messages, mentions etc. The app’s balloon widget isn’t enabled by default so to add it go to your timeline, mentions, or direct messages. You will see a Balloon button on the action bar when you visit each of these tabs. Depending on which tab you’re on, when you tap the button, a balloon will be added for that tab. For example, if you tap the Balloon button when you’re on the @mentions tab the widget will open your mentions when you tap it. The widget can only show one timeline so choose which is most important to you.

  

By default, the balloon snaps to the left of the screen. Tap it and the timeline you assigned to it will appear as an overlay on your home screen. To dismiss the overly, tap and hold the balloon and snap it to any side of your screen. To remove the balloon, tap and hold, and then drag it to the close button at the bottom of your screen.

  

Tweet Balloon by default will not check for new tweets so make sure you head over to its settings and choose the refresh interval. The app also features filters that remove mentions and replies from your timeline. To filter them out, tap the more button on the action bar and tap filter feed. From the app’s settings you can customize which tabs appear in the app, the font size, and customize notifications.

  

You might also want to manage the cache size and enable the ‘Auto Refresh’ option so that each time you open the app it fetches the latest tweets.

Install Twitter Balloon from Google Play Store