Looking for a way to keep up on the latest news and happenings of your favorite celebrities? Celeb Tweet TV aims to help you solve that problem by bringing the best of social media together in one place for your viewing pleasure. Celeb Tweet TV is powered by Stevie, which tracks down relevant social media content and consolidates it for easy consumption. After opening the app, you find yourself face-to-face with 100-plus celebrities, each with their own little icon. You can choose from actors, actresses, comedians, musicians, professional athletes, models and more. Tapping on a celebrity’s icon leads you to their channel.
Within each channel are a few things. First and foremost, the video feed. This is any content – whether movie or TV clip, music video, interview, etc. – that is related to the person whose channel you are currently viewing. At the bottom of the screen are scrolling tweets. Any tweet with the celebrity or their work tagged in it will show up in this area. And on the right side, you have another area for tweets, this one focused on pictures. This area will also periodically display the next few videos in the queue, which you can select and begin immediately should you get sick of the one you are watching. And if you just want to watch the videos, and aren’t so worried about the rest of the content, there is a full-screen mode as well.
When not in the full-screen mode, you can tap any one of the tweets, and this will bring you to a sort of hybrid Twitter app. In order to use this, you need to have the actual twitter app installed as well. If you do, you have the full functionality of Twitter, whereas without it you can only view the post that you have selected. The nice thing here is that any time you tap on a tweet, even though you are technically leaving the channel, the audio from the video that was playing continues to run, so you can keep listening and not miss a beat. You also have the option of pausing this. You don’t, though, have to go to the app to tweet something. At any time, you can send a tweet from the comfort of your current channel.
There are two more options for viewing the channels: My Faves and Celeb TV. My Faves is exactly what it sounds like – a channel dedicated to your favorites. On each of the celebrity icons on the home screen, there is a little star. By tapping the stars, you can select which celebs are your favorites. When you then enter the My Faves channel, it will be the same layout as the single-person channel, but with content from all of your favorites. Celeb TV is a similar concept, but you don’t select which celebs’ content is displayed in the channel. Rather, you get a lot more variety by having an all-celebrity channel.
For the most part, Celeb Tweet TV is well-designed and aesthetically pleasing. The large amount of content in each channel is laid out in such a manner that it is easy to see and digest without be overwhelmed. The integration of Twitter into the app – whether through the ability to tweet from the channels or browse Twitter without pausing your video – is smooth and natural. And all of the celebrities are legitimate big names; no B-listers here.
There is only one con to speak of, and that would be the design of the home screen. It’s not so much that it is hideous; there just really isn’t anything to it. A solid black background covered by icons for celebrities and channel options doesn’t seem to mesh with the rest of the app, which actually looks pretty nice. Fortunately, you won’t be spending too much time on the home screen, so it’s not something to worry about.