‘Twitter deliberately closed certain third-party apps from API’

Shutting down third-party apps that use Twitter’s API was a deliberate action. This is evident from internal communication of the company. One of the developers demonstrated this by changing the API keys, after which the app briefly worked again.

Tweetbot notification after closing Twitter

Because the app only worked with changed API keys, it can be deduced that the API itself still works, but access has been closed for certain apps, says the developer of Tweetbot. Several of the best-known apps that work with the Twitter API have been offline since Friday.

That the closure is deliberate, is apparent from internal communication The Information has seen. The site writes that reports appeared on the company’s Slack server on Friday morning US time that it was not a malfunction, but a closure of access to the API. According to reports, Twitter is working on a list of “approved points of conversation” for developers, but to date there has been no communication.

In addition to Tweetbot reports Twitterific that the app can’t connect to Twitter, just like Talon android app. Twitter once gave free access to the API, but that came to an end around ten years ago. Twitter earns less or no money from users of third-party clients, partly because some apps do not show ads.