Late last week, Twitter confirmed that the company is no longer permitting third-party developers to create Twitter clients. The information was quietly share through an updated developer agreement noted by Engadget. A new clause under Restrictions says that developers are not able to “create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications.”
As such, this effectively bans all third-party apps such as Tweetbot, Twitterrific, Aviary, Echofon, Birdie, and others. It also makes it clear that third-party Twitter apps are not going to come back at this time.
As of Thursday, Twitter stopped providing API (Application Programming Interface) access to clients such as like Tweetbot, causing them to stop functioning. At this time, Twitter provided no explanation as to why the APIs were suddenly unavailable. Twitter remained quiet until Tuesday, when it cryptically said that it was “enforcing its long-standing API rules,” a change that could cause some apps not to work.
Up until that point, third-party developers had not received any warning as to the shutdown, and Twitter has yet to clarify which API rules might have been violated.
An assortment of popular third-party Twitter clients such as Tweetbot and Twitterific are no longer functional. Twitter users, in turn, will now need to use the official Twitter app on iOS or Android or the Twitter experiences on the web. By cutting off third-party Twitter apps, Twitter will be able to serve ads to all users on its platforms.
Third-party Twitter apps have existed for more than a decade, and had become popular choices for users who wanted a different interface or set of functionalities beyond the default Twitter interface.
The developers behind Twitterrific confirmed that the Twitterrific apps for iOS and Mac have been pulled from Apple’s App Stores as of Friday.
Twitterific offered the following comments as to the situation:
“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 recognize as trustworthy nor want to work with any longer.
Twitterrific subscriptions through iOS have been cancelled, and Twitterrific is asking subscribers not to request a refund from Apple as the loss of the Twitterrific revenue will have a notable impact on the business, and thousands of refunds could be devastating.”
The third-party application Tweetbot has also shut down as a result of Twitter’s ban. Tweetbot maker Tapbots will be transitioning to development on Mastodon client Ivory.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.