Seesmic allows users to manage their favorite social media accounts in one place; too bad it suffers from several issues and missing features.
Seesmic is a social networking app that allows users to manage their Chatter, Facebook, Google Buzz, Salesforce, and Twitter accounts. Though Seesmic delivers on its promise to let users manage their various social media accounts, the application is hampered by a few limitations.
First, pictures posted on Facebook look terrible in Seesmic. Photos and images that would look full-size in the Facebook for Android app are a fraction of their normal size in Seesmic. And enlarging the image diminishes its quality, leaving it pixelated and blurry. When I viewed the same photo from my newsfeed in the Facebook for Android app and in Seesmic, the quality of the photo in Seesmic was significantly worse.
Seesmic lacks many of the features that Facebook for Android offers, including check-ins, events, photo albums, and chat. Omitting those features reduces Seesmic's usefulness for managing a Facebook account. I also had trouble receiving notifications, even though I indicated in the settings that I wanted Seesmic to add an alert to my phone's status bar and have the phone vibrate whenever something happened with my Facebook account.
Finally, the newsfeed doesn't seem to update properly. When I compared my Facebook newsfeed to the newsfeed in Seesmic, I noticed that the app left out some updates that my friends had posted.
The mechanics of managing your Twitter account with Seesmic aren't much different from those in the stock Twitter Android app. This is where Seesmic works just fine. The app incorporates all of the features and functions of Twitter, including the timeline, replies, and direct messages.
One very useful Seesmic feature is the Composer shortcut, which allows you post an update to several different accounts at once.
I didn't test Google Buzz and SalesForce Chatter with Seesmic because I don't use either service.
I have to applaud Seesmic for its clean, visually appealing, easy-to-understand interface. But the applause stops there. As I encountered issues with Seesmic, I found myself longing to return to the Facebook and Twitter Android apps.
Comments
Anon said: With regard to Seesmic missing FB updates, I find Tweedeck is missing the exact same updates, so most likely a FB issue.