It was only a matter of time before the mobile web scaled its economy to be able to allow users to blog from their self-hosted blogs while out and about using their smartphones. With so much of today’s business being done on the fly, it only makes sense to incorporate as much usability as possible for bloggers. The last few months have seen a number of cool apps for blogging, and specifically for WordPress, make their way into the app world. Let’s take a closer look.
While there have been standalone apps that have taken bits and pieces of the WordPress blogging experience onto your smartphone, such as WP to Go, MobilePress, and WordPress Mobile Edition. All of these and a few others allow you to do what you normally would be doing on your WordPress blog, and that is writing posts, moderating user comments, and more.
There is also the distinct advantage of having more users find your blog as it can now be listed in a mobile directory. This can result in many more regular visitors, and open up a large new crowd to you.
The biggest mobile apps to hit the market lately have been for the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, with rumors of a version for Nokia coming soon. No word on any Windows apps.
All of these apps are developed by WordPress, and are available for download now. They are all free, and are, of course, open source. Each has its own set of features, but all are designed to give you the best WordPress experience possible on the go. All of them work well with your self-hosted WordPress.org blogs, as well as with WordPress.com hosted blogs, and they have multiple language support.
Video is even supported in the Blackberry app, with rumors of iPhone and Android scurrying to catch up! That particular feature is making blogging on the fly with video an easy thing to pull off. Videos from meetings and conferences can now hit your blog with alarming speed.
The possibilities of using mobile apps to find and connect with ever more prospects and colleagues makes this a very exciting time. Using your mobile platform to not only keep you abreast of events as they are happening, but to also be able to render your take on your own blog in real time is a major plus.
This can only increase the functionality of your smartphone, and while it may not replace a laptop or notebook while you’re on the road, it certainly gives you more options. There are those, however, who predict that we will be doing more on our mobile internet devices and smartphones sooner than later, at least partially displacing more traditional computing.
The apps are elegant, and are very easy to implement. Make sure you take that not so daring leap into the world of mobile smartphone apps soon!
