Probably the best part about Windows Phone 8, besides the OS, is the new tools developers have to enhance their apps. Case in point: glƏƏk! from Liquid Daffodil. The popular Twitter client with a kick of humor is getting some Windows Phone 8-special features and we have a first look.
The good news for the rest of you is you don’t have long to get this as the app has already been submitted to the Windows Phone Store, meaning it should be available within the next few days.
So what’s new? The core of glƏƏk! is of course the same but now you have the following WP8-only features:
- Lock screen Wallpapers – Have your Locks screen updated daily with glƏƏk!’s glorious art
- Lock screen notifications – Both the counter and billboard for new mentions are supported, giving the user the option to use either or both
- Voice Commands – You can jump right to composing a new Tweet from the Start screen or use your voice within the app itself to help speed you along
The speech thing is really neat as you can hit the Win key and say things like “glƏƏk!...new tweet” and it will jump right into the composer. But once you are in the app, you can also do voice commands that are really useful. Case in point: You’re scrolling through your Timeline when you see someone’s tweet that you want to respond/retweet/quote. You simply tap the tweet to open it and within 15 seconds, you just say “respond” “retweet” or “quote” and it will perform that function. We found this to be actually quite useful and can see many users taking advantage of it.
Likewise with the Lock screen, where you can have new wallpaper updated daily or have glƏƏk! push notifications to your Lock screen, giving you a true “glance and go” ability for all your Twitter needs.
You can of course see all of this in action in our above video.
We’ll keep you posted when this app (and yes, Cowlick! Too is getting the same features) goes live in the Windows Phone Store. For now, you can download the current version of glƏƏk! with a free trial here.
Daniel Rubino is the Executive Editor of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft here since 2007, back when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and arguing with people on the internet.
