On Tuesday, popular micro-blogging service Twitter announced updates to its iPhone and Android apps; thus fixing the issues and shortcomings identified in these apps, and optimizing the service to run on Android-based tablets.

The announcement of the updates to the iPhone and Android apps will also enable Twitter to assuage privacy concerns, as well as bring back some of the much-loved features of the service, along with introducing a few notable enhancements. The updates are also an indication that the Twitter information network has been opened up to an increasing number of tablet users.

With both the updated Twitter for iPhone and Android apps, the micro-blogging service has re-introduced the swipe shortcut, which will enable the users to view the profiles of other users, respond to tweets, and `favorite,' share and retweet them --- all without having to leave their own timelines.

In addition, both of the updated apps will now boast a new feature which has been designed with the key objective of speeding up the process of finding friends on Twitter, with the help of their existing email and phone contact lists.

Despite the fact that iPhone users will witness most of the changes which Twitter has brought on via the update, the biggest advantage that the Android users will get from the update is that it optimizes Twitter to run on the new Android `Ice Cream Sandwich' version, and also on the Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon, Nook and Nook Color tablets from Barnes & Noble.