Tired of dealing with Twitter's direct messages? TwitChat solves that problem by integrating Twitter's mobile application with an instant messaging platform. The service enables users to not only tweet day-to-day occurrences, as the service is designed to allow, but also privately talk and converse with friends. With the proper development, TwitChat could increase Twitter’s popularity significantly, a move toward diverse functionality that could align its efforts with Facebook.

Until TwitChat, the only way for users to privately interact on Twitter was through direct messages, or DMs, which are characteristically limited to 140 characters per message — thereby preventing easy and effective conversations. With TwitChat, users can chat with their Twitter friends on their mobile devices just as they can with Google Chat, Hotmail chat, or Facebook Messenger. The mobile app also integrates regular Twitter functionality, which allows users to view their timelines, send tweets, and reply to mentions.

In an interview with PRWeb, Marcus Thomas, TwitChat CEO stated, “Facebook users have the ability to chat with their friends, so why shouldnt Twitter users?” Valid point, particularly with the ubiquity of new forms of interaction on social networks, but the core functionality of particular services — in this case, Twitter — may not be as fittingly coupled with services common to the competition. On top of that, the service is currently limited to iOS device owners, who, for all intents and purposes, may as well text directly with one another.

That being said, with further development enabling different operating systems to communicate with each other via TwitChat, the application can put up some competition for Facebook. Remember iChat? It was Facebook’s video chat capabilities, coupled with their existing user base, that largely wiped the service out as users moved toward limiting the number of their existing networks. With that in mind, Twitter’s simplified, text-centric focus my attract users looking to directly interact with one another without the distraction of heavy content. It is, after all, a mere step beyond the service’s focal point.

That’s not to say boundaries don’t exist. Ultimately, users spend more time on Facebook; there’s simply more information to consume, and, as a result, greater presence of users. On top of that, Facebook Chat is already thriving; unless TwitChat were to completely oust the service — that likely isn’t the goal — users will still be split between two services. Nonetheless, if TwitChat becomes compatible with different operating systems, ideally, the usage patterns of Twitter over Facebook may change completely, providing TwitChat significant room for growth.