Who knew that 140 characters could be informative, opinionated, controversial, and hilarious? Well, Twitter is all that and we continue to revel in it. You might think that you have seen it all as an old Twitter hand. Almost is not all as these ten interesting Twitter apps will tell you in 140 characters or less.

Still new to Twitter? Check out The Complete Guide To Twitter

There are lots of Twitter apps out there -some useless; some interesting; and some bit of both. But all in all, they are fun tools to play around with just your Twitter username.

So, let’s look at ten Twitter apps, from a virtual fortune cookie to one that can calculate how much your tweets can cost our planet in terms of paper.

Threetune

twitter apps

Twitter as a fortune cookie? Well this one is – with a click its takes a random Twitter message and hands it to you as a ‘hidden’ cookie message. If you have a few seconds to spare between some serious tweeting, try it out. Be warned, some tweets may be offensive.

Twonvert

interesting twitter app

As you can make out from the screenshot, this app takes your normal text and converts it into shorthand. Not exactly useless because I can shave off something from my SMS bills if I can condense two messages into one thanks to shorthand -  if I have the time to write it twice.

Twitter Loo

interesting twitter app

The time spent in the loo is a personal moment for many. Twitter barges into that sacred space by asking you to share what you are doing (or how) while sitting on the throne. Here the “pictures” tell the story. I will let the app speak for itself because I didn’t have the gumption to try it out on my followers.

Tweet Calories

interesting twitter app

The interface is really cool and you would think that they mean business. Maybe they do, because behind the flashy interface is creative marketing for a Brazilian gym. The app basically calculates how many calories you are burning while tweeting. It puts in several assumptions for arriving at your burn rate, so my own assumption says that it’s more of a fun tool rather than a scientific one.

Foamee [No Longer Available]

interesting twitter application

Teetotalers and those who like tea more than coffee can opt out of this one. It’s all about sending a virtual I.O.U (a beer or a coffee) with a tweet. Well, a virtual thanks is not so useless after all. The messages show up on the ‘Foamee Pub’.

Overheard It

interesting twitter application

Twitter is a digital grapevine and this site tries to prove it by posting all the fun things people overhear on Twitter. Most of the tweets are humorous, so you will actually have some fun ‘eavesdropping’ on what people are saying all over the social network. E.g. "Today, I overcome my phobia of President Bush."

Zzzz [No Longer Available]

interesting twitter application

It’s one of our favorite words in the English language and this visualization app takes advantage of it in an artful way. It searches for tweets containing the words ‘Zzz’ or ‘Zzzz’ and then generates it as shown in the screen above in real time. It’s a simple visualization project and is not intended to put you to sleep.

Sleeping Time

Let’s follow the previous Twitter app that actually does something for sleep. Enter the Twitter account name and this simple app tells you ‘when do they sleep’. It takes into account the period of inactivity of a person on Twitter.

Enter your Twitter username and find out how much it would take to print your entire Twitter timeline. Then you can compare the results against some ‘metrics’ like kangaroos and tennis courts.

Tweet Wasters

twitter apps

Finally, if you have been spending the last few minutes on the above sites, expect to get a tall score in this one. Tweet Wasters as the name suggests how much time you have spent (wasted) on Twitter.

The list of Twitter apps is long. Some will survive the churn; most will fall by the wayside. But while they are there these Twitter apps will take fifteen seconds of our attention. Which Twitter app has intrigued you recently…not as much for its usefulness, but more for its quirkiness. Let us know in 140 characters or less.