It has finally been officially confirmed that the blocking of third-party Twitter apps like Tweetbot and Twitterrific were blocked by Twitter
This was confirmed by a tweet from the Twitter Dev account that said the following.
Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules. That may result in some apps not working.
— Twitter Dev (@TwitterDev) January 17, 2023
Meanwhile, before the tweet was sent out, the developers of third-party Twitter apps had pretty much no word from the company on the status of their apps and the Twitter API.
It truly is an odd situation.
One of the reasons that Twitter could find third-party apps is, other than finding that some of its users do not use the official Twitter app or website, they cannot monetize off those same users since apps like Tweetbot and Twitterrific provide an ad-free experience. This means that things like sponsored tweets will not show on those users’ timelines while they are using third-party apps.
Over the past weekend, an article from The Information showed the Twitter Slack chat that showed workers within Twitter saying that the third-party apps being inaccessible was “intentional.”
Even Tapbots, the developers of Tweetbot, have their own tweet about this whole debacle.
Tweetbot has been around for over 10 years, we've always complied with the Twitter API rules.
If there's some existing rule that we need to comply with, we'd be happy to do so, if possible. But we do need to know what it is…@TwitterDev, you know how to reach us. https://t.co/RujogIjRvx
— Tapbots (@tapbots) January 17, 2023
In the meantime, Tapbots is working on a Mastodon app called “Ivory” that does not currently have a release date. We can probably expect it to be released in the coming weeks and have that release be somewhat expedited with more people joining Mastodon, as well as the developers spending more time on projects they can actually work on.
When it comes to Twitterrific, MacRumors has reported at least one its employee’s plans.
“Twitterrific’s Craig Hockenberry said that he will be exploring the concept of a truly universal timeline that leverages how open standards can be used in ‘new and different ways.'”
At this time, those looking to use third-party apps on Twitter are not going to have much luck in doing so. Apps like Fenix for iOS and iPad have still been said to be working normally, and an explanation why it has not been impacted but other third-party Twitter apps being blocked from the Twitter API is still unexplained.
What are your thoughts on most third-party Twitter apps not being an option for users anymore on Twitter? Comment below or let us know on Twitter at @appleosophy.
