As you might have noticed, TweetBeam has undergone some changes recently. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve gradually rolled out a renewed version of our Twitter Wall, built from the ground up in HTML5. In this post we’ll share some of the details behind the transition.
Same looks, different engine
We think TweetBeam is and has always been the prettiest way to display tweets at your event. Therefore, we decided to stay as close to the original design as possible. However, to keep up to date with modern browser technology we’ve changed the technology behind TweetBeam.
Goodbye Silverlight
When we first created TweetBeam several years ago, browsers weren’t yet capable of rendering smooth animations natively. To display animations and highly interactive content on the web, browser plugins such as Flash and Silverlight were commonly used. We used the latter to develop the first version of TweetBeam. Silverlight enabled us to ensure great performance across a variety of browsers – and it’s been a great ride!
However, paired with the rise of a new generation of devices (tablets, modern smartphones), browser technology has greatly improved. The adoption of modern browsers (with their significant performance improvements) has now reached a level where we don’t have to rely on these plugins anymore.
Enter HTML5
The new TweetBeam has been rewritten in HTML5. This comes with a couple of great advantages:
- (Obviously) no dependency on Silverlight anymore. You’ll now only need a modern browser at your event location and don’t need to install any plugins.
- Besides using TweetBeam as a Twitter Wall display, it’s now better suited for:
- Mobile devices: you can now preview your TweetBeam shows on your iPad or smartphone.
- Embedding: the HTML5 version is friendlier to embed on your website.
Under the covers: for the developers among you, we’re using TypeScript to help us maintain a large Javascript codebase and GSAP as a high performance tweening engine
A Step Forward
We’ve also welcomed the rewrite as an opportunity to make TweetBeam an even better framework for customizable visualizations. For example, it gives us better options to:
- Plug in new visualizations: we’ve made it easier for us to innovate and develop completely new visualizations. Expect more about this later!
- Set up advanced configuration and customization: we now have even more options to tailor our Twitter Wall to your preferences and requirements.
We’re extremely excited about the possibilities the new TweetBeam brings us. It’s been a pleasure to work with so many great events around the world, and this new version is a step forward helping you create even better event experiences.
What do you think of the new TweetBeam and what developments would you like to see next? We’d love to hear from you in the comments or on Twitter via @TweetBeam.