The native Twitter client space on BlackBerry 10 has been heating up as of late. Twitter for BlackBerry has improved significantly over the past few months, Nemory Studios has introduced Twittly and now Kisai Labs is getting ready to release a new and vastly improved version of my personal favorite BlackBerry 10 Twitter client, Blaq.

Dubbed as v1.4, when it arrives later this week, Blaq will bring tons of new settings, improved notifications, a better multi-account experience, BlackBerry Passport support and much more. We've got the full run down for you all to look through below if you simply can't wait for the update to arrive to find out what all exactly is new.

Tons Of New Settings

We're introducing a slew of new options and some familiar ones from Blaq for PlayBook! Leave screen on? Check. Large photos instead of small thumbnails? Check! TweetMarker integration? Check! Full control of all of your notifications? A few checks there. All that and more! All of your settings sync with your BlackBerry ID account automatically so if you need to reinstall, you can do so without needing to worry about setting everything back up (or remembering to back it up in the first place).

Notifications! Notifications! Notifications!

Blaq has always provided you with full hub integration but we've now taken it a step further and have added notifications for retweets, favorites and follows! They're not only reliable; they're instant! All these notifications happen whether the app is open, minimized or closed. In addition to that, we've added a new watchlist feature which allows you to follow any public account on Twitter and receive notifications in your BlackBerry Hub when the user tweets! In REAL-TIME!

Better multi-account experience

Now you no longer need to switch accounts to retweet a tweet, favorite one or follow an account. All your notifications now push to hub if you have them turned on and when you're viewing a tweet you'd like to retweet or favorite, you can now perform these actions on all accounts set up on your device at once! Blaq is still the only Twitter app on BlackBerry 10 that allows you to tweet, retweet, follow and more from the hub without needing to switch accounts!

BlackBerry Passport support and UI tweaks

We FINALLY have BlackBerry Passport support! No more rendering issues, landscape scrolling and all the perfect ways to #WorkWide. For our UI tweaks, we've added large thumbnail views, options for author display, recent photos on profiles, emoji when composing tweets and introduced an optional floating compose button (10.3+ only) to allow you to quickly compose a new tweet. Whew!

Other notable additions

  • Support for Bitly Pro – Just sign in and start shortening those URLs!
  • In-app browser – View links right in the app without leaving
  • Notification when a tweet with an attached photo is successful with ability to view the posted tweet
  • Tweetmarker integration
  • Hashflags (type #USA) and stock symbol recognition
  • Failed tweet drafts in hub – No longer do you need to retype a tweet that fails to send
  • Twitter GIF support – upload and view animated GIFs
  • Search compose – Instantly jump into the conversation when your search is for a hashtag or symbol. Hashtags and symbols are automatically appended.

Fixes

  • Various crashes when in direct messages, adding accounts or random.
  • View Photo when attaching photo not working in card (hub/sharing)
  • Sometimes, replies and tweets in convo aren't tappable
  • Translation doesn't alert when it fails
  • Black gaps in timelines
  • If location is enabled and/or the permission is denied or location is turned off, the compose screen prompts on every new tweet

As you can tell just by looking at all the changes, it's a pretty BIG update to what is already a great app. We just have to wait for it to roll out through BlackBerry World, which should be happening as early as tomorrow. Those who already have purchased Blaq should be on the lookout for the update notification and if you've not already given Blaq a go, now is a great time to do so. You can purchase it right from BlackBerry World for only $2.99 and as soon as the update arrives you'll have access to it.

Download Blaq for BlackBerry 10

Read more