App.net may be a new player in the social networking space, but Tapbots certainly isn’t. Tapbots, for those who don’t know, is the name of the development team behind Tweetbot, one of the most successful third party Twitter clients since Tweetie in the early days of Twitter. Tapbots is now attempting to prove that they’re more than just a one hit wonder however with their release of their new App.net (a community funded Twitter alternative) client called Netbot.

Essentially, Netbot is Tweetie. If one was simply going on the screenshots with little knowledge of the differences between Twitter and App.net, you’d think that this app is Tweetbot. The changes are very subtle, including a slightly different icon, 256 character support in a post compared to Twitter’s 140 characters, and cover photos for profiles baked into the app.

There are also no Direct Messages or Push Notifications baked into the app, due primarily to the fact that App.net thus far has no support for those features. However, if you’re looking for an alternative to Twitter and have already ponied up the $36/year it costs to use App.net, you can’t go wrong with Netbot. It costs $4.99 and is now available on the App Store.

Via: The Verge