When comparing Twitter (Official) vs Flipboard, the Slant community recommends Flipboard for most people. In the question“What are the best news readers?” Flipboard is ranked 8th while Twitter (Official) is ranked 40th. The most important reason people chose Flipboard is:
This app has a very polished, magazine-style layout, that is flipped through by swiping. Because of its layout, Flipboard is especially nice on tablets.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Gets the latest API updates
Twitter is slightly infamous for making changes to the API. At least with the official client, you stay ahead of this.
Pro Clean & Functional UI design
Pro Officially sponsored
So you know it will always be supported and won't be randomly shut down.
Pro App experience similar to web experience
If you're switching from using the web client, this app will be quickly understandable to you.
Pro Inline photos
Pro Multiple account support
Allows easy switching of accounts withing the app.
Pro Supports login verification
The official Twitter app is perhaps the only app to support two factor authentication or login verification, thus providing a necessary additional layer of security to your Twitter accounts
Pro Photo editing tools
The app has filters, automatic level balancing and ability to crop built in the app.
Pro Very polished UI that is organized like a magazine
This app has a very polished, magazine-style layout, that is flipped through by swiping. Because of its layout, Flipboard is especially nice on tablets.
Pro Personalized magazines
Magazines is a features by Flipboard that can allow anyone to create their own personalized magazine by collecting the content from various websites and collate them into a magazine that can also be shared to other readers. Magazines can be set to either public or private access and anyone can follow the magazine.
Pro Free
Pro Cross-platform
Flipboard is available on Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows and web app.
Pro Google Reader import
There is also a simple import from Google Reader.
Pro Social network integration
Flipboard pulls information from Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. Everything is aggregated in one app, which can then be flipped through and shared, either directly on Flipboard or on social networks.
Pro Easily discover stories based on topics
Flipboard has millions of Magazines that anyone can follow, covering various subjects. Some cover general topics like home decoration, while others are immensely specific: for example, there’s one just about technological advances that extend human lifespan. All users can create their own Magazines and share them publicly, with friends, or keep them for private use.
Cons
Con Forced inside Twitter's annoying ecosystem
Con "In case you missed" feature, showing tweets other users liked in your timeline
Features (can't be turned off) that disrupt chronological timeline and/or show sames tweets repeatedly.
Con Promoted tweets
AKA ads.
Con Too many permissions
Asking a lot more permissions than most third party apps.
Con No widget
Recently took away the widget for whatever reason and that's not cool.
Con Pretty heavy
If you're on a "available-space" budget, the official twitter app is pretty bulky and you'll be better-off with a more lightweight alternative.
Con Lack of ability to view tweets in a proper timeline
Con Terrible cellular data management
If you have a limited data plan for your phone, don't be surprised if you find a whopping 800 MB consumption at the end of the month. The app really, really wants to download absolutely everything, even if you don't want to see or play anything.
Con Excessive ads with no way to remove them
Flipboard doesn’t offer subscription plans, having only the completely free full version. However, it does feature ads that appear between articles and there’s no way of removing this function.
Con Needs better organization of topics, mags, users followed
When you follow 3-5 magazines per topic (sometimes more) it would be nice to be able to group some of these together in a way that constricts the 'fire hose' of content.
Con Low quality news sources
The default content is from low quality sources such as Mashable.