Twitter streamlines mobile apps, adds search button to iOS

Twitter has streamlined its mobile apps to make it easier to find any kind of content, and has added a search button to iOS that can be used anywhere in its mobile apps.

The social-networking giant said today that it is updating its iOS and Android apps, as well as its mobile.twitter.com offering, in an attempt to make it easier for users to find the things they're looking for. The update is the latest in a string of tweaks Twitter has made in recent months presumably aimed at improving users' content discovery experience.

Perhaps the most important on a daily basis is the new search button in iOS, which has been available in Android for some time. Previously, it was necessary to go into the Discover tab in order to search for specific Twitter users, hashtags, or other content. Now users will be able to click the search button at any time, regardless of which tab they're in.

Another big element of the update is that all content delivered in the Discover tab -- tweets, activity, trends, and suggestions of accounts to follow -- will come in a single stream instead of breaking each category into a different section.

In addition, Twitter has updated the Connect tab. "To provide a simple experience in the Connect tab, the default view is now Interactions," Twitter wrote, "which shows you new followers, retweets, and mentions." Users can also modify their settings to show only their mentions in the Connect tab.

Twitter also updated the way clicking URLs works, so that when users do so, the app takes them directly to the Web site rather than first expanding the tweet and then requiring a second tap on the URL.