Twitter suddenly stopped the access of third-party applications a few days ago without any warning. This made the app developers very angry because there were no clear rules to follow and there was no explanation from Twitter on how to fix the situation.
Twitter quietly updated its developer agreement as of last night on this move, and under Twitter’s new updated developer agreement, developers are no longer strictly allowed to create their own clients that use or access licensed materials to replace the Twitter app or create a similar product.
The strange thing is that Twitter stated in a previous post that this attitude has been exhibited for a long time.
It doesn’t make much sense for Twitter to suggest that it’s a long-standing rule that app developers can’t copy core features, as apps like Tweetbot and Twitterrific are third-party Twitter apps that have been around for a very long time, even though they’re constrained by the API.
In addition, these third-party applications provided users with what they wanted and did not require them to use the official Twitter application. This is probably why this breakthrough of Twitter.
As a result, it seems that Twitter’s friendly relationship with third-party app developers has come to an end and their main goal is now to secure app dominance. One thing’s for sure, the shift understandably angered app developers who have spent years building a livelihood around the third-party Twitter apps business model.
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