After Google's withdrawal from China, the domestic Android application environment has been declining, and application developers have become more and more unscrupulous. Take Sina Weibo, our most commonly used microblog, for example. After several years of evolution, the official client installation package of microblog has reached an astonishing 51.88MB, which has brought us many redundant and less practical functions, such as application recommendation With a large number of advertisements and a chaotic timeline, the user experience has not improved with the increase of application volume. Although microblog official restrictions on APIs are becoming increasingly strict, third-party microblog clients are still struggling to survive. Today, we will take stock of some third-party microblog clients struggling to survive.

Weico

The healthiest operation is Weico, who is famous on both iOS and Android platforms. Starting on the iOS platform, Weico quickly became the most highly rated third-party client on the iOS platform with excellent interface design and perfect functions including private messages. Later Weico also launched Weico+photo social application, which was very successful. After a long wait, Weico took the initiative to enter the Android platform. Although the initial layout was criticized by many Android users in design, it still became the most comprehensive microblog client on the Android platform except for the official client with its unmatched advantages in API.

Smooth

Smooth is one of the best clients to experience on the Android platform at present. It has a simple and bright style and a variety of themes. It follows the material design design, is equipped with cool animations and supports gesture operations. It can also make multiple settings according to its own preferences. Its functionality is not wrong. Because of the API interface, many third-party clients cannot use the private message function. Smooth uses the curve to save the country. It uses the built-in web page version of the private message function in the application, which is equivalent to a shell browser and supports sending pictures by private message.

BlackLight

If Weico has the most complete functions and Smooth design is the most eye-catching, then BlackLight is the representative of pragmatism. The overall design is quite simple, practical first, and the pursuit of aesthetics is far less stringent than the two clients described above. Developers rely on making a client they like as a starting point to make the client quite lightweight and pure without advertisements. Of course, no one can do anything about the advertisements inserted by Sina Weibo in the timeline.

Welike

Welike is a third-party microblogging client designed by MD, with a volume of only 5.77MB. The overall design style is small and fresh, with white and blue as the main color. The browsing interface is very open, and the timeline looks very comfortable. As a lightweight client, Welike has good fluency and simple functions. It is a pity that Welike cannot view popular comments. Moreover, as a third-party client, its API interface is limited. Sometimes login/authorization will fail.

Aisen

Aisen client is a third-party microblog client that is very diligent in beautifying design. It can change not only colorful themes, but also wallpapers. It can change freely according to user preferences. It is the best third-party client in appearance. Unlike most third-party clients that collect categories in the DrawerLayout sideslip menu bar, Aisen uses the shortcut button in the lower right corner to switch groups, which is much more convenient than pulling the menu left. It is a pity that this client is also limited by the API interface and does not have the functions of likes, private messages and multi image upload.