Twitter: how they’re ramping down access for third-party apps



Contributing Writer
Photo: Mortality Credit: Nick Chant


Twitter would be the worst boyfriend / girlfriend ever.

Twitter is not that into you… if you are a “traditional Twitter client”

In the latest missive on their developer blog (written by Michael Sippey, who coined the phrase “core Twitter consumption experience”), Twitter hims and haws that it’s not you, it’s them.  They want to eliminate the traditional clients (calling out Tweetbot and Echofon specifically), and intend to eliminate them by starvation rather than just pulling the plug.  From the blog post:

“We will not be shutting down client applications that use those endpoints and are currently over those token limits. If your application already has more than 100,000 individual user tokens, you’ll be able to maintain and add new users to your application until you reach 200% of your current user token count (as of today) — as long as you comply with our Rules of the Road. Once you reach 200% of your current user token count, you’ll be able to maintain your application to serve your users, but you will not be able to add additional users without our permission”

“…’traditional’ Twitter clients like Tweetbot and Echofon. Nearly eighteen months ago, we gave developers guidance that they should not build client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.” And to reiterate what I wrote in my last post, that guidance continues to apply today.”

The irony of delivering a consistent social experience for users is that the native Twitter applications while functional, are generally far inferior to many of the products currently on the market.  Users aren’t clamoring for Tweetdeck or (cough, gag) the Twitter for iOS app that continues to send you pop-up notifications after you “disable” the feature.

I also suspect that great Twitter clients such as GrabInbox, who should be categorized as Social CRM applications because of its similarity to HootSuite, may be cut off.  HootSuite and Radian6 just happen to have access to the Google Plus read / write API which Twitter may see as a potential competitor.

If Twitter were completely transparent they would have written a different letter

Dear users,

We want to get paid.  We intend to go public and we need to show investors that we can make money.  If we don’t we will be another Facebook.

We are going to make it difficult for you to access Twitter by any means except for our native applications.  Hootsuite and Radian6 are still cool since they have read/write access to Google Plus, but pretty much everything else you love could potentially be cut.   Ironically, Google Plus could have saved your Twitter experience by opening their API, but they didn’t.

We know that platitudes like “Defend and Respect the User’s Voice,” may seem contrary to our actions, but you must treat everything we say like a fortune cookie.  Instead of saying “in bed” after everything we say, just insert “if users access Twitter from our native, non-third-party apps.”

For example” Defend and respect the user’s voice… if users access Twitter from our native, non-third-party apps.” or “we’re working to deliver a consistent Twitter experience… if users access Twitter from our native, non-third-party apps.” 

Godspeed and buy lots of Twitter stock …if we go public (wink),

Sincerely, Anyone at Twitter.

What’s next for Twitter?

A lot of people (specifically early Twitter adopters who have moved to Google Plus) wax philosophical about how things on Twitter have changed.  Maybe this will be the impetus for a whole new generation of users to lament the glory days of Twitter.

In any case, it seems like Twitter still wants to be friends with the third-party apps they are alienating.  After all, Twitter is letting them keep their stuff.

Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

Writer and chief of miscellany at leaderswest.com

I aspire to give people something to think about rather than tell them what to do. My favorite Google Alert is “social media research,” I am increasingly compelled by Gen Z, and I appreciate good writers agnostic of where they write. At one time I was Kred’s 12th most influential social media blogger and Klout’s most influential person on the topic of David Hasselhoff. Transplant from Seattle living in Cincinnati. Haven’t entirely adopted the local sports teams yet.

Jim Dougherty

@jimdougherty

Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

  • http://www.modsuperstar.ca/ modsuperstar

    This just makes me so angry. I understand that Twitter wants to control their ecosystem, but the reality is the clients they have as they currently exist are inferior to 3rd party clients. They bought Tweetie a couple years ago and turned it into Twitter for Mac, then essentially let it rot.

    The reality is these 3rd party apps are used by the power users of Twitter, the ones with influence. If Twitter pisses on their core supporters by making changes like this I’m not sure it will end well for them.

  • jimdougherty

    Thanks for reading and commenting! I couldn’t agree more. It’s really a sad development given how their past openness inspired incredible creativity. They don’t mention any app that has less than 100K user tokens, but I hope they let those smaller apps be.

  • http://www.Vernon-J.com/ Vernon J

    I still use the old version of TweeDeck v.0.38.2 & it still works fine. I know they own it, but they may be ending access for that version. GO MAVS!!!

  • http://leaderswest.com Jim Dougherty

    Can’t speak to the TweeDeck bit, but Go Mavs indeed! Mark Cuban was the only owner to vote against the relocation of my semi-beloved Seattle Supersonics, so he’s gold in my book!

  • Sue Densmore

    Without those great third party apps, Twitter would not have reached the point they could consider going public. Their apps aren’t as good! This move is annoying and really shows such ingratitude.

  • Ross Quintana

    It is a whole other business to control the use of your feeds. Most people don’t realize this and also how it inhibits the growth of the internet. Many really cool ideas are killed because of cost of getting data from these sites to integrate in their idea. It is like closed door politics.

  • http://cirquedumot.com/new-readers/ Susan Silver

    I once dreamed that given capital I would make some awesome Twitter apps. Now Twitter isn’t giving me a choice. Going to have to convert those dreams to things I can do with Google….

  • http://osakabentures.com/english-2/saulfleischman/ Saul Fleischman

    This went right to the #RiteTag technical lead @michalhudecek Thanks, @jimdougherty:disqus

  • http://osakabentures.com/english-2/saulfleischman/ Saul Fleischman

    And I already have one – ritetag.com – but fortunately, we also have 9 other social networks integrated @susan_silver:disqus (yet still we’re sweating!)

  • http://cirquedumot.com/new-readers/ Susan Silver

    Neat, Will check it out.

  • http://www.facebook.com/777productions Deon Fialkov

    It mystifies me why twitter and these big portals actually still run…myspace died because they couldn’t be bothered sorted our their phishing and malware problems…twitter seems to be suing 5 of the big companies for spamming…blah blah blah , but they don’t bother purging spam profiles, duplicate profiles. The other week I read that facebook boasted that they reached “901 million users” blah blah blah – they don’t say “by the way we included every single person that created a login on our system – we have included those that create 40 different profiles on a single IP address, so we can show our sponsors / advertisers that we have SO MANY people” blah blah blah…

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