TwistReader

TwistReader focuses on content based on your twitter lists

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Inspiration

I was using a feed reader and Twitter together to stay up to date. When I started to use Twitter lists, I realized how obsolete the feed reader effectively was. Twitter has also additional content I am interested in (like videos and images), but can be noisy at times. At some point, I decided to create an app that focuses on the content first, but has also a hook back to the tweets.

What it does

Currently, the app is handling only own lists, fetching a total maximum of 48 hours of tweets and extracts the content out of it. Currently, the app focuses on articles. It uses the built in browser webview to read the articles. You can save links back to Pocket, share the link via other apps and also open the tweet that contains the link on Twitter.

How we built it

The app is build with Xamarin.Forms, focusing on iOS and iPhones first. I started with the link extraction code first and proceeded to view generating code in Xamarin.Forms.

As I learned from this challenge, I updated all API calls regarding to lists to the Twitter API v2.

Challenges we ran into

  • link extraction - getting preview data (this is still an ongoing challenge). Made my code for that publicly availabe on Github
  • secure authentication with no secrets stored in app - solved by using Azure Functions for both the login process and the data fetching process
  • Xamarin.Forms has its own challenges, and I ran into a good number of them.
  • Switching the MVVM framework on a close to beta release app
  • User experience (a neverending story)

Accomplishments that we're proud of

  • the authenication process (I am considering to blog about it)
  • the link extraction process (already open sourced)
  • performance of the Xamarin.Forms app

What we learned

I learned a lot about how websites are made up for social media (or even not, there are bad guys out there). The link extraction process is still giving me sleepless nights.

I learned also a lot on Azure Functions and how powerful they are. And, finally, I learned to utilize the Twitter API v2.

With creation of app landing page, I improved my ASP.NET (Core) knowledge.

What's next for TwistReader

  • bring the app to Android
  • optimize the app for tablets
  • iron out all the bugs beta testers will find
  • support image and video content embedded in tweets
  • support managing lists from within the app
  • support lists users are following
  • support Twitter bookmarks in addition to Pocket
  • better Tweet integration, allowing to directly interact instead of redirecting to Twitter
  • create a client web app for Desktops

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