Third-party Twitter apps Tweetbot, Twitterrific and Echofon aren’t working because Twitter has banned them.
The apps, which all rely on access to Twitter’s application program interface (API) to get data, reportedly stopped working on January 13. Now, as reported by Engadget, the apps breach recently updated Twitter development terms.
Engadget spotted the changed terms (without an official announcement from Twitter), with a clause now banning the “use or access the Licensed Materials to create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications.”
“It’s not totally unexpected, but the lack of communication is a bit insulting,” the developer of third-party Twitter app Fenix Matteo Villa told Engadget.
“We are sorry to say that the app’s sudden and undignified demise is due to an unannounced and undocumented policy change by an increasingly capricious Twitter – a Twitter that we no longer recognise as trustworthy nor want to work with any longer,” Twitterific wrote in a blog post.
Today marks the end of an era. Sadly, we’ve been forced to pull Twitterrific from both the iOS and Mac App Stores.
Twitter’s unexplained revocation of our API access has left the app with no path forward. Please read our blog for more information🖖 https://t.co/UZSdmqZtMD
— Twitterrific (@Twitterrific) January 19, 2023
According to The Information on January 13, the suspension of these third-party apps was an “intentional suspension”, as per internal messages viewed by the technology news website. The reason for the suspension, however, remained ambiguous.
On January 18, as reported by The Verge, Twitter confirmed that it was actively suspending the third-party apps, but with a vague statement.
Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules. That may result in some apps not working.
— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) January 17, 2023
The creator of Tweetbot told The Verge that Twitter hadn’t communicated with them in any way, and that it was unclear what rules were broken.
Twitter wrote that the platform would be continuing to “invest in our Developer Platform, especially our Twitter API,” in a post last month. “Thank you for sticking with us through this transition, and we cannot wait to keep building together,” the account added.
The Musk-era alterations are numerous, but some examples include the back-and-forth shifts on verification and blue checks, lifting the ban on political advertising, and making the algorithmic feed the default.
This sucks, dude.
This article has been updated since it was originally published.