Since last week, many third-party Twitter apps such as Tweetbot, Twitterrific, and Fenix have been experiencing service outages. Worst of all, we haven’t heard from Twitter an explanation as to why third-party apps aren’t working. Until now…
Actually, again, no explanation was given, but Twitter silently updated the developer agreement page to say that developers are no longer allowed to create their own Twitter clients. In the “Restrictions” section, the agreement now includes the clause: “You will no longer use or access licensed materials to replace Twitter apps or create a similar service or product.” This confirms developers’ speculation that they will no longer be able to create third-party clients for Twitter, led by Elon Musk.
Before the developer contract was updated, the Twitter Dev account made a vague tweet stating that it was “enforcing long-standing API rules.” However, it was not disclosed which rules were mentioned, causing even more confusion.
As a result of the new restrictions, Twitterrific has decided to pull its app from both the iOS and Mac App Stores. “We regret to say that the app’s sudden and dishonorable demise was due to an unannounced and undocumented policy change of an increasingly capricious Twitter – one that we no longer consider trustworthy and that we no longer want to work with.”
Twitterrific was the first desktop and mobile Twitter client and one of the first apps on the App Store.
Fenix, on the other hand, had already pulled its app from the Google Play Store before updating its Twitter policies. The iOS counterpart still works fine, but Fenix developer Matteo Villa is seriously considering whether he should remove the app from the store, according to Engadget.
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