Filttr is the brand new way of using Twitter, that makes it manageable, sensible and allows you to focus on what you want to see. We work to cut out the important from the noise, so that you don’t have to bother with what doesn’t matter to you. How do we do this?
Filttr under the hood
We have created some really smart algorithms that try to gather as much as they can about what you like. Together, we call these algorithms FLAI (Filttr Artificial Intelligence). It handles all the data that comes and goes through us. The more you send tweets through us, the more FLAI learns about you. Using this knowledge, FLAI then sets about deciding which tweets are worth your time and which aren’t. Those that aren’t, get filttr’d out. There are many factors that decide this. While most are user configurable, some aren’t. These are FLAI’s internals, which are best left alone. One of the user configurable factors (and one of our iconic features) are Friend Priorities. This is where you can rate your friends to help FLAI decide how important their tweets are to you. The absolute kicker is our temporary block. Have a look at our Settings/Priorities page. You’ll see what we mean.
We have custom blacklisting and whitelisting for phrases as well, so that you can just add them, and based on which list you added it to, a tweet containing that phrase will be filtered out or won’t. For example, if you don’t like a bunch of your friends talking about Microsoft products during an event, just add “Microsoft” to your blacklist, and from then on, any tweet containing “Microsoft” will get filtered out. After the event is over, just remove it from the list, and things will be back to normal. Complementing this is our Aliases (previously Groups). You can take a bunch of your friends and put them in one alias, throw in some search terms, and you have the most powerful tweet tracker ever. Then, just keep that group open in one tab, and you’ll get updates only from those friends. Really helpful for times when some people are live tweeting an important event.
How do you Filttr
Of course, Filttr is more than just filtering. Like we said – Filttr is the brand new way to use Twitter, and one of the things you’ll do most frequently is send or read tweets. We give you different ways to interact with Filttr, so that you use whatever is most convenient for you. We have an absolutely awesome web interface. It is self-refreshing (using our amazing smart refresh so that you never run out on your API limit), has a uni-timeline view which shows your tweets, replies from your friends and direct messages to you in a single stream, has conversation tracking – so that you don’t get lost when a friend replies to someone else (or even you for that matter), and many more things. Since everyone mostly lives in their browsers these days, we highly recommend it.
But you’re not a browser person? No worries. We have IM support too. Yes, you read that right. We support IM interaction! You can get your tweets (filtered of course), replies and direct messages via IM. You can also send tweets, lookup a person’s information, and search Twitter – all from your IM window. We have big plans for this, so if you think this is great, you ain’t seen nothing yet!
If you’re not an IM person either, we also have a – wait for it – desktop application! Written for AIR, Adobe’s amazing cross-platform runtime, Filttr’s AIR application is the smallest, fully functional Twitter client ever. It supports visual and audible notifications, has a tabbed view to keep your tweets organised, supports keyboard navigation, multiple accounts so that you can use the same application for as many Filttr accounts as you can have, really small desktop and memory footprint, and all this while staying under 175KiB. Things have changed a bit. Just head on to our desktop application page to learn more.
If you’re on the move, you can use our mobile interface that, along with everything Twitter’s mobile interface offers, allows you to see your direct messages and upload photos as well. It’s fast and really usable. Try it!
Not just another “Twitter app”
As we’ve explained before, Filttr is not just a Twitter app. Filttr is a web service, that aims to make everyone’s Twitter experience simpler. We have a lot of ideas about features that will further help you manage your streams, and make using Twitter a much more enjoyable experience. We had a decently short closed ßeta, where we got a lot of feedback and moved quickly to improve and implement features. We also got new ideas as to what people are looking for. If you have an idea for us, we are listening. Drop us a line at our Uservoice Feedback, and we will definitely look into it. If you’re too lazy, just send us tweet – we are @filttr (follow us to stay up-to-date on what’s happening), or ping @SwaroopH. We read and answer to all feedback – good or bad.
Hope you have as much fun using Filttr as we had making it for you. Happy Filttr’ing!