Twitter for iPhone, Android updated with better search and discovery features

Hey Twitter fanatics, your favorite social network for short bursts of information has released updates to its iPhone and Android applications so that you can feed the beast and find out what’s happening even faster.

Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android now feature a few fun goodies, including more discovery tools, better search, and additional notification options specifically aimed at the power users among us (the rest of you won’t notice the subtle upgrades).

In-app searchers, especially those looking for specific tweeps, will be delighted by the fact that search better distinguishes between people (accounts) and tweets (content) in both the Connect and Discover tabs. Search now also suggests related terms and different spellings. The improvements should make for a simpler, less frustrating search experience on mobile — because as any iTwitterer knows, search was definitely lacking on mobile.

With the update, Twitter has made over the Discover tab with an even stronger emphasis on hot stories. App users can tap a featured story to view related tweets. Below stories and above trends, Twitter has sandwiched in a section called “Activity” that displays the follows, retweets, and favorites happening among those in your information network. Activity is not new to the Twitter experience. The feature, first introduced in the New-New Twitter rollout, is exactly the same as what you’ll find in the Discover section on the web.

Finally, Twitter for iPhone and Android have been updated to allow for more push notifications. So when your next tweet is favorited or retweeted, or someone new follows you, you can be instantly alerted to the activity on your device.

The new versions of Twitter for iPhone and Android are out now, available on the App Store and Google Play respectively.