I am not a heavy user of social networking by any means. I would check Facebook and Twitter a few times a day, LinkedIn not even weekly and use FourSquare rarely. It was just too much of a pain to use four different apps. Also, the Facebook app never seems to consistently work for me in terms of showing most recent posts first. If only there was one app that integrated all four social networking sites into one newsfeed. I searched iTunes and, lo and behold, I found HUDLD (pronounced “huddled”). I have been using it for quite a while and I have to say it’s a great app.
HUDLD combines Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and FourSquare into a single newsfeed. It also supports RSS feeds although, at this time, they are not incorporated into the newsfeed. The app is quite robust, supporting the following features:
Facebook
• View feed
• Fully featured profile pages
• Direct messaging supported
• View likes and comments
• Like / unlike
• Native photo, video and web views
• Upload photos
• Comments – add / delete
• Friend list
• Up to 30 Facebook accounts can be added although you can only view one at a time
• Requests / notifications supported
Twitter
• View feed
• Full profiles
• Up to 30 Twitter accounts can be added although you can only view one at a time
• @ name and # tags supported
• Reply
• Retweet
• Favorites
• Direct Messaging supported
• Photo upload
• Follow / Unfollow
• View replies
• @mentions
• Trending topics
LinkedIn
• View feed
• Full profiles
• View likes and comments
• Like / Unlike posts and comments
• Comments – add / delete
• Browse or add connections
• Browse or manage groups
• Up to 30 LinkedIn accounts can be added although you can only view one at a time
FourSquare
• View Places
• Check-ins
• Earn or check your badges
• Full Places and User profiles
• Maps
RSS Feeds
• Use or delete default feeds
• Add your own RSS feeds
There are plans to add Google+ in the future. I am not a Google+ user so this is not an issue for me.
Adding your various accounts to HUDLD is very straightforward. I added an account for all four sites plus an additional Facebook and Twitter account with virtually no effort at all.
A pretty nice feature is the ability to post to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn simultaneously. Type it once and post it on up to three sites.
The standard icon (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare) is shown to the left of the post so you know from which site it is from.
HUDLD is a Top 10 social app in 25 countries and a Top 100 app in 26 countries.
HUDLD is available in the App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod for free as an ad-supported app or you can get the ad-free HUDLD Pro for $0.99. Note that there is not a separate iPad app; it is the iPhone app displayed on the iPad screen using ‘2X’.
For me, the ads are not at all intrusive. There is a simple ad banner at the bottom of the screen. So I am happy using the free version.
I have to say that I really like this app. I find that now since I only have to use one app, I am checking my social networks more often. (Some would argue that this is not a good thing.) I am particularly more aware of what is going on with my LinkedIn and FourSquare accounts because, before HUDLD, I did not check them with any regularity at all.
