I don’t know what it is about warm spring days that makes people want to clean house, but spring cleaning is a very real and very powerful impulse. And in our digital age, spring cleaning isn’t just something you do to your house: it’s something you do to your devices, too! To that end, let’s take a peek at an iOS app for doing “spring cleaning” on your Twitter account: unfollow for Twitter.

What is it and what does it do

Main Functionality

unfollow for Twitter is an iOS app that’s been designed to help users “clean up” their Twitter account. This app lets you see who has unfollowed you, which accounts that you follow don’t follow you back, and which people that you follow haven’t been updating their Twitter feed recently.

Pros

• Far better at showing your “unfollowers” and “dead accounts” than Twitter’s official app
• Simple to navigate
• Unfollow people right from within the app

Cons

• App Store description doesn’t do much to boost consumer confidence: the description states “unfollow for Twitter is not liable to damage done to your twitter profile.” It also says “you using unfollow for Twitter’ at your own risk.” (sic)
• App has annoying banner ads (these can be removed for 99 cents, or removed for free if you send a promotional tweet from within the app
• In-app language seems poorly constructed/translated
• App could be cooler if it didn’t involve login: then you could use it as a research tool for multiple accounts…even ones that aren’t your own!
• Some features cost 99 cents, including whitelist management and the ability to see who unfollowed you

Discussion

unfollow for Twitter has some good points, but it also has some bad points. First, the good things. I am a big fan of how simple this app is to navigate, and how quick the login process is. It is a bit weird that you can’t pay for any of the upgrades until you login, however.

One thing that the official Twitter app doesn’t do well is give you a comprehensive picture of your followers. unfollow for Twitter makes it really easy to pick out which people you follow haven’t tweeted in a long time, and it is also simple to unfollow people from within the app. You can even unfollow everyone in one fell swoop, and start with a clean slate.

However, there are some issues with this app. I feel like some of grammar is poor, and I also wish that you didn’t have to pay 99 cents to upgrade various features. At least you can save a little money with the $1.99 option to unlock everything at once.

The banner ads do kind of ruin the look of the app, but at least there are two different ways that you can kill the ads forever. If you like to keeps tabs on your Twitter profile, this tool is great for cleaning out people you don’t want to follow anymore.

Conclusion and download link

unfollow for Twitter does have some annoying qualities, but it is a good way to quickly do some spring cleaning of your Twitter account. If you’re the kind of person who is a little bit OCD about the ratio of people you follow on Twitter to the people who follow you back, this inexpensive tool can provide the balance you seek.

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 1.98

Requires iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, iOS version 5.0 or later

Download size: 10.4 MB

unfollow for Twitter on Apple App Store